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A BULWARK AGAINST 
GERMANY 

THE FIGHT OF THE SLOVENES, THE 
WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGO- 
SLAVS, FOR NATIONAL EXISTENCE 

BY 

BOGUMIL VOSNJAK, LL.D. 

late lecturer at the university of zagreb (croatia) 
Translated by 

FANNY S. COPELAND 




LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UN WIN LTD. 
RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

ILLYRICUS : La Question de Trieste. 
Geneve, 1915. 

JUGOSLAV NATIONALISM. 
London, 1916. 

A DYING EMPIRE (In preparation) 






First published in igiy 

Also a Fnnch Edition published by Imhouse et Rene Chapeloi, 
Paris. 



'■•UflllARYJi 



(AH rights reserved^ 



PREFACE 

One of the primary causes of the World- War 
was Germany's determination in the interests 
of Pan- Germanism to crush the Jugoslavs ; and 
from this point of view the cataclysm of 191 4 
was merely the crisis in the long' and dogged 
struggle which has been waged for centuries 
between Germanism and the Jugoslavs, and 
of which European public opinion has been so 
curiously ignorant. 

In this struggle the Serbs and Croats were 
more fortunately placed than their brothers the 
Slovenes, v/ho, being the most westerly of the 
Jugoslavs, were compelled to bear the brunt 
of the German attack. In the early Middle Ages 
the Slovenes were first among the Jugoslavs 
to found an independent State, and though they 
were also fated to be the earliest victims of 
German conquest, they nevertheless continued to 
form a strong ethnical barrier, beyond which 
Serbs and Croats, sheltered from the tyrannical 
influence of the Holy Roman Empire, could 
develop their social and national characteristics. 
But it was not until the nineteenth century, when 
Pan- Germanism began to expand towards the 
southern seas, that the Slovenes became in truth 
the Bulwark of their race, and the severity of 

5 



6 PREFACE 

their struggle warned the rest of the Jugoslavs 
that their fate too was hanging in the balance. 
Owing to their north-westerly position the 
Slovenes form the true national^ political, and 
economic rampart of Jugoslavdom, and like 
outposts on exposed gtound they watched 
the advance of the gigantic foe whose purpose 
it was to destroy the Jug'oslavs and enslave Italy. 
For the dire menace of the German peril was 
always lelt in the Slovene north sooner than in 
Zagreb (Agram) or Belgrade or in the cities of 
Lombardy. 

A recognized State has its diplomatic repre- 
sentatives abroad, whose duty it is to represent 
its interests, and to keep other nations informed 
as to its home affairs. A nationality, without 
an independent State organization is in an un- 
fortunate position, as its diplomatic work perforce 
devolves upon private enterprise. Undoubtedly 
the political leaders of a nation without a State 
owe it to their position to keep foreign countries 
informed of the conditions at home, especially 
if these conditions might imperil the peace of 
the nations. Unfortunately, the leaders of the 
nation dealt with in this book have not done 
this, and now, in the midst of the most tremendous 
upheaval the world has witnessed, a Jugoslav 
who has never before taken a share in politics 
has been called upon to rectify their omission. 
As the book had to be written in a foreign 



PREFACE 7 

country, the author was obliged to draw mainly 
on his personal knowledge and memory, and the 
material at his disposal unfortunately, was not 
as extensive as it would have been in his own 
country. 

For this and other reasons the book does not 
pretend to deal exhaustively with Slovene life 
in all its aspects. Only a historian of literature 
could adequately interpret Slovene intellectual life 
to the British public, and illustrate the value 
of Slovene literature to the nation and to 
humanity ; for the Slovenes boast a considerable 
number of men of letters worthy of a niche in 
the world's pantheon of literary genius. And 
only a master of word-painting' could do justice 
to the beauty and charm of the Slovene lands in 
language of sufficient wealth and beauty. 

The author is conscious of being neither a 
poet nor a literary expeit, and has therefore 
contented himself with sketching in broad out- 
lines the origin and history of the Slovene 
people, in an endeavour to acquaint the British 
people with a small and unknown ally, but one 
whose pluck and perseverance has long and 
sturdily withstood Pan- Germanism on the shores 
of the Adriatic. 

The chapters in this book wtere written in 
spring, 1915— with the exception of Chapter 11, 
which wias written in spring*, 191 6 — with' the 
object of bringing the Slovenes nearer to 



8 PREFACE 

English readers, and to unfold to them a new 
national world and its past arid present, its aims 
and aspirations. It maty come as a surprise to 
some readers to realize that German methods 
have been at work for a thousand years in the 
Slovene lands, and to trace the connection between 
the events and conditions described in these pages 
and some of the burning questions of the hour. 

It is almost an article of religious faith with 
the Slovenes that the present crisis will decide 
their fate. They feel that it is a question of now 
or never, and that the long, grim struggle must 
at last lead to national independence, or else 
end in national extinction. 

But the end of this strugigle cannot be a matter 
of indifference to Europe, for by the national 
death of the Slovenes an extremely important 
strip of territory would become German. In that 
case Germany would be the real gainer, as 
German Government tactics and German social 
ideals would triumph where to-day the SJav 
democratic ideal is still holding its own against 
fearful odds. 

My book is not conceived in a spirit of hate 
or controversy. It is merely intended to thYow 
an important light on the life -or -death struggle 
waged by a poor but self-reliant and courageous 
people who are coming forward at this great 
moment in history, convinced of the justice and 
integrity of their cause. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE . . . . .5 

CHAPTER 

I. NATIONAL STRUGGLE OF THE SLOVENES OCCA- 
SIONED BY THE POLITICAL ATTITUDE OF 
GERMANY . . . . .II 

II. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SLOVENE 

LANDS . . . . .19 

III. THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH OF THE 

JUGOSLAVS . . . . .29 

IV. THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

SLOVENES UP TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 4I 

V. THE FRENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS . 55 

VI. POLITICAL RENASCENCE OF THE SLOVENES . 66 

VII. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION . 83 

VIII. THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA . . -94 

IX. THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIAN FOREIGN 

POLICY ..... 113 

X. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM . I23 

XI. SLOVENES AND ITALIANS , , . 1^8 



10 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XII. SLOVENE ECONOMICS .... I96 

XIII. THE JUGOSLAV IDEA . . . . 213 

XIV. THE STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE . 23O 

XV. SLOVENE PARTY POLITICS . . . 243 

XVI. THE GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE . 2^1 

INDEX . . . . , . 265 



A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 



CHAPTER I 

NATIONAL STRUGGLE OF THE SLOVENES OCCA- 
SIGNED BY THE POLITICAL ATTITUDE OF 
GERMANY 

The Great War has brought the Jugoslav question 
into prominence, and the greatest event of a 
generation is indissolubly bound up with the 
Jugoslav struggle for existence. Yet Western 
Europe at present knows very little of the 
most western branch of the Jugoslavs (Southern 
Slavs), which, though caught as in a wedge 
between Germans, Magyars, and Italians, yet 
dares to look forward to a happier future. If 
it is true that England has only recently 
discovered the Serbs and Croats, it is fairly safe 
to say that as yet she knows not enough about the 
Slovenes. And yet for centuries the Slovenes 
have opposed German aggression in the cause 
of democracy and the equal rights of nations — 
in short, for the same ideals which impelled the 
Allied Powers tOi take up arms on behalf of 
Belgium and Serbia,; only with this difference, 

u 



12 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

that the conflict between German brutality and 
the Slovenes was confined to the narrow borders 
of home politics far removed from the general 
knowledge of Europe, whereas the World-War 
is being fought out in the full light of public 
opinion, v 

Hitherto the Slovenes have attracted very, little 
interest, and yet they occupy an important 
geographical position in the Slav world, as their 
territory lies close to the very heart of Austria 
and they constitute the only obstacle between 
Germany and the Adriatic. They are a Jugoslav 
nation numbering about one and a half millions, 
and forming the bulk of the inhabitants of 

* Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, Gorica-Gradiska, 

• Istria, and Trieste — that is to say, of six of the 
kingdoms and principalities represented in the 
Vienna Reichsrat. More than any other Slav 
nationality, excepting the Czechs, they have 
become imbued with Western civilization and 
Western ideas, and it would be a great misfortune, 
not only for the Slav race but for Europe, if 
this sturdy, industrious, arid intelligent young 

• nation were condemned to be Germanized or 
> Italianized through oversight or neglect on the 
part of the statesmen whose task it will be' to 
formulate the terms of the world-peace. 

At the end of the war Jugoslavs will be 
confronted by the great task of reconciling and 
fusing the ideas ancj ideals of the Slav races in 



*HE SLOVENES' NATIONAL STRUGGLE 1^ 

the East with those of the Latin and Anglo-Saxon 
races in the West. And the solution of this 
problem will be greatly helped by strengthening 
such Slav elements as by their nature^ form the 
link between East and West. 

By instigating the World- War, Germanism has 
shown itself a champion of race-hatred and 
racial conflict, and certainly not an element lof 
culture capable of uniting the nations of Europe 
in peaceful progress. Europe has learnt to its 
cost what immense sacrifices and efforts will be 
necessary if the spectre of German world-rule 
is to be laid for ever. Experience is proving the 
danger of having allowed Germany to become 
so great that German organization and German 
** discipline " could imperil the peaceful relations 
between the States of Europe^ and the issue of 
the present war can only assure us the blessing 
of peace in the future if all the natural obstacles 
to German aggression are adequately supported 
and strengthened. From this point of view the 
case of the nations who have had to fight for 
their very existence with Germany has become a 
European problem, and it is from this point of 
view that this book on the Slovenes has been 
written. 

- The history of the Slovenes is the story of a 
desperate struggle for national existence. From 
the days of Charlemagne till the World War this 
struggle has been waged without peace, armistice, 



U A BULWABK AGAINST GERMANY 

. or hope of reconciliation, and it can only end in 
^ victory or national extinction. Germany, has 
denied the right of existence to the Slovenes, 
who have had to fight in turn for their language, 
their land, civil and democratic freedom, social 
existence, and the chance of development . 
» The watch- word of the Slovenes is, "War to 
the knife against Germanism," and for centuries 
nothing has stirred the soul of the nation so 
^ deeply as the hope and expectation of seeing! the 
detested German Junkerdoni finally crushed by 
the Allied Powers. Thus would the Slovenes 
be rid of their worst enemy, and they might 
reasonably look forward to a freer and happier 
future . 

In speaking of the fate of the SJovehes, we 
might aptly draw a comparison between the 
principles of government as observed in the 
British Empire and those practised by Germany. 
On the one hand, we find wise, common-sense, 
practical statesmanship, political tolerance j on 
the other, clumsiness, absurd pedantry, brutal 
illiberality, and fatuous pettiness. And a people 
so wanting in statecraft, so lacking in tact and 
political wisdom, have the ludicrous audacity to 
call themselves Lords of the Wiorld ! 

In the treatment of the languages problem in 
Austria by the Germans and their puppets, the 
Austrian Government provided an exhibition of 
ridiculous incapacity. Years ago, the Government 



THE SLOtiENES' NATIONAL STRUGGLE iS 

regarded it as decidedly unpatriotic if a German 
candidate for an official position in a district of 
mixed nationality showed himself conversant with 
the non-German tongue of the district ; whereas 
it surely would seem more suitable to send a 
German official, who only knew German, to an 
exclusively German district. But the German 
mind cannot entertain the idea that a native 
population has any conceivable claim to having 
its administration carried on in its own language. 

The behaviour of the Germans in Posen, 
Schleswig, and Alsace-Lorraine affords ample 
proof of their incompetency to deal with' a civil 
population possessing a separate language. Not 
strong enough to exterminate the non- German 
nationality, their aggressive intolerance has only 
roused intense opposition, and has made the 
Germans the worst hated of all nations in the 
world . 

It is amazing that the Germans in Austria 
should have been equally short-sighted. The 
Slavs have contributed greatly towards safe- 
guarding the Empire against the Turks, and 
surely had a full claim to a just share in it, 
seeing that they formed the mjajority of the 
population. Moreover, the Austrian Slav tongues 
are closely related, they boast an important 
literature, and are sister -tongues of the Russian 
language, which is spoken over more than one- 
sixth of the globe ; good reason, one would 



U A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

suppose, why a German official should study 
the language of his district and thereby greatly 
facilitate his official duties. 

English procedure in India has been very 
different throughout. The languages problem is 
a hundred times more complicated in India than 
in Austria, yet it has been solved by England 
without any difficulty. An Austrian official would 
only be called upon to master a few different 
dialects of one of the principal Slav tongues, 
and by no means the forty- two radically distinc- 
tive languages of India. An English Indian 
civilian is absolutely compelled to know the 
vernacular of the district where he holds his 
appointment. The languages examination for the 
Indian Civil Service is exceedingly stiff, and if 
a candidate fails in this, he is disqualified for the 
Service. The national susceptibilities of the 
natives are treated with consideration. The 
author once had occasion to explain the Austrian 
languages problem to an Englishman who had 
held a high position in the Indian Civil Service, 
and who at once volunteered his opinion, that if 
Austria were by chance to become possessed of 
India, the country would be ablaze with rebellion 
within a month, and every German and Austrian 
massacred, even if every single native were 
guarded by a policeman. 

The genius which has prompted England to 
grant to each of her colonies a suitable form of 



THE SLOVENES' NATIONAL STRUGGLE 17 

self-government proves her one of the greatest 
civilizing factors in the world, and has justly 
aroused the admiration of students of political 
science as well as of practical statesmen. Canada, 
Australia, and South Africa bear witness to the 
colonizing genius of the English, and their Con- 
stitutions are founded on the principle that the 
liberty of the subject forms the basis of all social 
and economic development. 

The clumsy tactlessness of the Germans renders 
them quite unfit for the creation of a great 
colonial Empire, and it is to be hoped that the 
world-peace will reduce them once more to the 
position of a continental nation which is content 
to grow potatoes and speculate on metaphysics. 
A nation that has proved itself incapable of 
creating a regime of civil liberty at home, has 
no right to compel other nations to submit to a 
yoke of blind obedience to an aristocratic and 
military bureaucracy ; but if Germany were to 
become a world- Power, she would still remain 
incapable of evolving either Home Rule or any 
other form of independent Constitution for even 
the most civilized nations which had the mis- 
fortune to fall under her sway. For the hideous 
conditions now prevailing in the Dual Monarchy 
Austria is indebted chiefly ,to the Germans, whose 
influence on the Austrian Germans prevented the 
granting of reasonable autonomy to the various 
Austrian nationalities. It is the incredible narrow- 



18 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

mindedness of the Germans which has reduced 
Austria to a state of chaos and made her a 
danger to the peace of Europe. When it is too 
late, Austria will doubtless discover that true and 
healthy imperialism cannot exist without national 
autonomy. 



CHAPTER II 

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SLOVENE 
LANDS 

During the course of centuries thie Slovenes have 
lost quite half their national territory, but the 
true interest of their case lies in the historical 
importance attaching to their fate. With the 
German encroachment upon Slovene territory from 
the north-west, and Magyar inroads from the 
north-east, the bridge that linked up the Northern 
Slavs with the Jugoslavs was broken down. This 
ancient fact has acquired renewed political and 
diplomatic importance through the World- War, 
and it will be one of the problems of European 
diplomacy to restore this lost connection between 
Northern Slavs and Jugoslavs. 
^ In the seventh century the Slovenes and their 
kinsmen, the Serbs and Croats of to-day, migrated 
into the lands south and \vest of the Danube, and 
if they had been guided by a judicious policy 
when settling in their new home, they might 
easily have developed into one of the Central 
Powers of Europe. The heritage then occupied 
by the western Jug'oslavs comprised present - 

19 



20 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

day Sty^ia, Carniola, Carinthia, Gorica-Gradiska, 
' eastern Friuli, eastern Tyrol, the Lun^au in 
Salzburg, all Upper and Lower Austria south of 
the Danube, and all Pannonia west of the Danube. 
Thus the Slovenes were masters of a large tract 
of country, practically the whole of the later 
Habsbui^g possessions, and at least one -fourth of 
Hung'ary. As this territory reached as far as the 
Danube, the Slovene lands bordered on Czech 
territory on a frontier in the north-west. Besides 
their brother -Slavs, the Czechs, the Slovenes had 
the Bavarians as their neighbours in the north], 
and the Lombards of Northern Italy in the south- 
west. 

Many pf the place-names in the Austrian Alpine 
provinces are Slovene to this day. The word 
** windish ** (i.e. *-* Slovene ") which occurs 
frequently in the place-names of the Tirol, 
Salzburg, Lower Austria, and even of Bavaria, 
is always proof of a former Slovene settle- 
ment. 

Unfortunately as settlers the Slovenes proved 
themselves neither judicious nor far-sighted. 
Instead of occupying the marshes, and thus 
protecting the country against possible attacks, 
they preferred to concentrate in the hilly interior, 
leaving the gates open to foreign invaders . Their 
descendants have had bitter cause, to rue this 
neglect, for if the early settlers had been wiser, 
Slovene territory would never have dwindled as 



SLOVENE POLITICAL G^EOGEAPHY 21 

it has actually, done. Originally extending from 
the Inn, the Erno, and the Danube right down 
to the Adriatic, it has now shrunk to barely half 
its former size, to the incalculable detriment of 
the whole Slav race. 

At one time the Czechs were neighbours of 
the Slovenes, not only in the north-west but also 
in the north-east . In proposing to unite Bohemia 
with the Jugoslavs by a strip of territory 
extending southward from the neighbourhood of 
Pozun (Pressburg), Denis, who has delved more 
deeply into Slovene history than any other 
modern writer, touched upon one of the Slav 
peoples' most important geographical and political 
problems. The Magyar wedge which now divides 
the Northern Slavs from the Jugoslavs did not 
exist in the early days ,of Slav settlement when 
Bohemian territory bordered upon the Slovene. 
To this day the counties ,of Szala and! Vas as 
far as Szopron are larg^ely inhabited by Slovenes, 
and so the distance between the most northerly 
of the Jugoslavs (in Szopron) aiid the most 
southerly of the Northern Slavs (the Czechs in 
Pozun (Pressburg)) is scarcely greater than the 
distance betwieen Vienna and Pozun. During the 
centuries of SJovene independence, before the 
Magyars came into the country and settled on 
the ' shores of the lake of Balaton, western 
Pannonia was the centre of Slovene political 
power and intellectual life. Thus far east did 



22 A BULWARK AGAtNSi' GERMANlf 

the Slovene sw^ay extend, and tp this dky Nagy 
Kanizsa and many other important towns in 
Hungary bear Slovene names. 

A map of the Slovene lands of to-day forms a 
melancholy contrast to a historical map of a few- 
hundred years ag'o. German aggression from the 
north and Magyar aggression from the east have 
woefully encroached upon the borders of the 
Slovenes, by sheer force of numbers pressing 
more and more heavily upon the most western 
of the Jugoslavs and gradually ousting them from 
their inheritance. In this respect the Italians 
have been far less dangerous neighbours. 

At present Slovene territory extends about as 
far towards the west as does the territory . of 
the Czechs farther north. It reaches its north- 
western extremity in sv. Mohor on the Zila, north 
of Pontafel, and is bounded on the west by a 
line drawin from sv. Mohor down to Resiansia on 
Italian soil, and then east of Cedad (Cividale) 
and as far as Kormin (Cormons). From Kormin 
(Cormons) the Slovene boundary runs to the 
south of Gorica (Gorizia) and along the Soca 
(Isonzo) almost as far as Gradisk'a, and then 
along the southern slope of the Kras (Carso) 
down to the sea. In the south the Adriatic forms 
the boundary via Trieste and Koper and as far 
as Pirano, where the Croat element begins to 
predominate, and mingles with the Slovene 
element on the coast. In Istria Slovenes and 



SLOVENE POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 23 

Croats live side by side, and it is not necessary 
to define a boundary between the two branches 
of the Jugoslav race. Towards the east a 
boundary is provided by the political frontier of 
Croatia, extending northwards from Reka (Fiume) 
as far as Radgona (Radkersburg) in Styria, the 
inhabitants of Zumberak (Sichelburg) being more 
Croat than Slovene. North of Radgona 
(Radkersburg) the linguistic continuity of the 
Jugoslav territory extends only as far as 
St. Gothard on the Raab, but a few scattered 
Jugoslav communities exist in Vas and Szala, as 
has already been stated, and there is an isolated 
Slovene-speaking district near Szopron. 

No Jugoslav can think without bitterness 
of the northern racial boundaries, for it is there 
that the Jugoslavs have lost most ground, and 
that the full force of the German attack has 
told most heavily on the Sliovene people. The 
northern frontier has always been the vulnerable 
point in Jugoslav territory, and nowhere has the 
national struggle been waged more violently or 
with heavier losses than in the fruitful wine 
country of Styria, and the Alpine forest-land of 
Carinthia. In this connection it is interesting 
to note that none of the maps dating from the 
days of Austrian Absolution betray any attempt 
to belittle Slovene territory. In its dealings 
with the various national problems of the Dual 
Monarchy, the absolutism of a bygone age was 



24 A SULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

far more just than the German National fanaticism 
of to-day. 

In the fifties of the nineteenth century 
the official linguistic boundary ran considerably 
farther north than it does now. On the old 
maps it is traced as passing between the districts 
of Maribor and Graz in Styria, and therefore 
coincides with the true dividing line between 
German and Slovene linguistic territory. Beyond 
a doubt, therefore, Austria was in those days more 
generously disposed towards a nationalist policy, 
but this tolerance vanished as soon as the various 
nationalities were handed over to Prussianism. 
At present the official northern linguistic boundary 
runs from Radgona (Radkersburg) on the Mur, 
through Spielfeld and Arvez (Arnfels) to Labod 
(Lavamiind) in Carinthia. From there it passes 
north of Velikovec and Klag^enfurt, through 
the historically famous Gosposvetsko Rolje to 
Blatograd (Moosburg), thence thtough the Vrbsko 
and Osojsko Lakes to Beljak (Villach), till it 
reaches the north- western limit of Jugoslav 
linguistic territory in sv. Mphor (Hermagor) in 
the Zila valley. 

This territory includes the crown lands of 

Carinthia, Styria, Carniola, and the Austrian- 

Illyrian littoral. Roughly speaking, it is bordered 

r on the north by the rivers Mur and Drave, in 

the west by the Soca (Isonzo), in the south by 

I the Adriatic, and in the east by the Croatian 



SLOVENE POLli?ICAL GEOGRAPHY 2& 

political frontier, which is identical with that of 
the Holy Roman Empire of thfe Middle Ages. 
From this it may be seen that Slovene linguistic 
territory extends for some distance into Italy, and 
that several counties in western Hungary are 
likewise inhabited by Slovenes. 

The home of the Slovenes is rich in beautiful 
and varied scenery. In the north it includes part 
of the Alpine world, with all the solemn grandeur 
of its rugged peaks — zl world of wondrous beauty, 
which is reflected in the frank and kindly 
souls of its inhabitants. Farther southward, the 
Carinthian forest-land with its far-flung range of 
wooded hills gives place, in Styria, to one of the 
richest wine-growing countries in the world. The 
rhythmic outlines of the vine-clad hills, and the 
harmonious and picturesque charm of this country 
are well expressed in the cheerful temperament of 
the Slovenes, and in that glad acceptance of life 
which is one of their chief characteristics. In 
Carniola the towering majesty of the Alps stoops 
to the lovely, hilly country that unites Slovene 
territory with the kindred soil of Croatia. Here, 
in the Bela Kraine, the regular outlines and sober 
green of the sunny vineyards bring a touch' of 
subdued colour, a note of satisfied repose into; the 
tender beauty of the landscape. In Southern 
Carniola, where the mighty amphitheatre of the 
Kras looks down upon Trieste at its feet, the 
Slovene landscape assumes a new and sombre 



26 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

aspect. In the Kras country the cheery, poverty 
and sunny temperament of the Slovene chang^es to 
a graver, almost melancholy mood, and the 
rugged, unspoilt nature of the country seems 
reflected in the equally rugged simplicity of the 
minds of the natives. The rocky soil of the Kras 
hides a strange dark world of giant caves, full 
of weird shapes and fantastic outlines. From 
the roof of this world of subterranean marvels 
the eye travels over a boundless horizon to the 
blue distance of the Adriatic. Down there on 
the coast, where capital and labour are bestirring 
themselves in one of the world's great seaport 
towns, Slovenedom breathes the crisp, salt air of 
the sea ; and under that invigorating touch our 
people are concentrating all their strength in the 
hope that they may yet be united with their 
brother Jugoslavs, and in union with them win 
their rightful place among the nations. 

Towards the west the Karst descends to the 

Vipava Valley, beautiful under a southern sun, 

and rich in fruit-gardens and viney^fds. These 

lead into Gorica, the most iwiestern of the Jugoslav 

lands, and the varied beauty of the landscape 

cannot fail to charm the traveller. Here lies 

the heart of the Slovene South, here under 

} the glowing sun of Gorica, in the vineyards 

^ whose southern slopes mark the Italo- Slovene 

\ linguistic frontier, and from whose ridge is visible 

the first silvery glimpse of the sea, and here 



SLOViENE POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 2? 

Slovene energy and Slovene patriotism were most 
highly, developed. 

It is only natural that this country, so near to 
the very heart of Europe, should have been felt 
by Germanism as a formidable obstacle on the 
road to the south and the east. A strong^ Slovene 
element is quite equal to the task of shutting off 
Germany from the Adriatic. Pan-Germanism 
conceived it to be one of its first national duties 
to break down the Slovene barrier in order to 
occupy the hinterland of Trieste. It should never 
be forgotten that Bismarck called Trieste " the 
point of the German sword." Nowhere does the 
German desire to destroy the independence of 
the smaller nationalities appear so openly as in 
these lands between the Alps and the Adriatic. 
The position of the Slovene country ig analoigous^ to 
that of Switzerland, and, like Switzerland', it is 
surrounded by countries and races pf different 
languages. .When the Great Powers of Europe 
proclaimed the neutrality of Switzerland, they 
did so because they considered an independent 
Switzerland essential to the welfare of Europe. 
Perhaps Europe will some day discover that it 
would greatly assist the cause of peace, and 
indeed fulfil one of the pre-conditions of peace, 
if the Slovene countries were definitely placed 
beyond the reach of both German and Italian 
ambitions, and accorded unity with Ju'g^oslavia. 

The Slovene question is a European question. 



28 A BIJlWARK against GERMANY 

In olden times this country was the great highway, 
between north and south, a land where north 
and south met and blended in quite a special 
fashion. Here, at the junction of three great, 
distinct civilizations, the German, the Italian, and 
the Jugoslav, the Great Powers ought tO; create 
civic liberty, and the possibility of free, un- 
trammelled development in the future. Romans, 
Goths, Byzantines, Slavs, and Germans have for 
centuries contended for this strip of land', but 
none have been abUe to retain their hold on it, 
until the Habsburgs succeeded in incorporating 
it for centuries in their agglomeration of States. 
But this is the age of nationalism. The highest 
power is no longer vested in dynasties, but in 
the nations, whose fate is bound up with the 
fate of the land, and the Slovenes also must 
be accorded the right of deciding their own fate, 
and of crying ** Halt I " to the aggressive schemes 
of Germany, Austria, and Italy. 



CHAPTER III 

THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH OF THE 
JUGOSLAVS 

Having considered the importance and extent 
of . the national territory of the Slovenes — 
the lands between the Mura, the Triglav, the Soca 
(Isonzo), and the Adriatic shore as far as Reka 
(Fiume) — their national character and history- 
deserve to be dwelt upon. 

The Slovenes are Jug'oslavs. Their fate is 
inextricably bound up with that of all other 
Jugoslavs, and there can be no future for 
them apart from the rest of their race. It 
is not easy to find a parallel to the precisje 
relationship between the Slovene and the rest 
of the Jugoslavs. The population of the British' 
Isles affords no suitable comparison, as the 
difference of race and language between the 
Scotch, Welsh, Irish, and English is considerable, 
and even the dialects spoken in various parts 
of England differ far more than does the Slovene 
from Croatian or Serbian. Perhaps the linguistic 
and national conditions in Italy offer the best 



30 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

comparison. If the Tuscan speech had not been 
adopted as the Italian literary languagie, arid 
the Tuscans were in the habit of writing" in 
their dialect, the Venetians in theirs, and the 
Piedmontese in theirs — ^that would give a fair idea 
of the difference between Croatian and Slovene. 
Only a Slovene would understanid a Croats, a Serb, 
or even a Bulgar far morie easily than a Venetian 
would a native of Tuscany. Moreover, modern 
Slovene and Croatian have been established as 
literary languages for barely a century, and 
neither tongue can yet be considered stereotyped. 
It certainly seems more than likely that the 
changes following upon the World-War will also 
affect the language of the country. 

Lubor Niederle^ the well-known Czech eth- 
nologist, maintains that in 1908 the Slovenes 
numbered 1,500,000, and the Serbo-Croats 
8,550,000 souls. 

In no Jugoslav country has the struggle 
between Slav and German been contested so 
fiercely as in the Slovene provinces. German 
lack of consideration, coupled with that brutal 
disregard of the rights of all non- Germans which 
is so faithfully reflected in Germany's foreign 
policy, have long been experienced at first hand' b^ 
the Slovenes. The struggle for the land between 
Drava and Mura is a scene in the World's 
Tragedy, and it will be played out in the World- 
War. In view of their historical significance, the 



THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH 31 

story of the Slovenes is well worth considering 
in detail. 

The Austrian census affords a glaring example 
of Austrian double-dealing'. The Slavs form the 
overwhelming majority of the population, and 
ought as such, to be the governing party in 
the State. Therefore the Government seeks to 
minimize their numerical importance in every 
possible way, and very often by underhand 
expedients. It is impossible, even by the help 
of *' cooked " statistics, to prove that the Slavs 
are in a minority in the Dual Monarchy. So the 
Government has tried to break the force of the 
Slav majority by classifying the population in 
such a way as to give the impression that even 
the purely Slav districts contain matiy German 
inhabitants, and the census is falsified accordingly. 

In order to establish the nationality of an 
Austrian citizen, he is not asked by the State 
to what nationality he belongs by extraction, but 
what language be habitually uses. Now, most 
of the districts which Germanism is trying to 
annihilate are multilingiial, and the Slav, whether 
in business or as a simple citizen, usually can 
speak several languages. The census in many 
ways resembles an election. There is the same 
canvassing, the same coercion on the part of 
the employer and those in a position of social 
advantage towards the employee and the social 
inferior. There are no voting papers, but the 



32 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

entry in the census paper is of more importance 
than a ballot. At the time of the census-taking 
hundreds and thousands of Slavs are coerced into 
recording their ** language habitually used " in 
deference to the demands of their superiors, 
usually Germans or Italians. This falsification is 
facilitated by the expression " language commonly 
used in intercourse," as it is an easy matter to 
convince the Slav labourer that his command and 
use of the German tongue establishes a certain 
claim. In a multi-lingual state an expedient of 
this kind obviously works out to the advantage 
of the party which is able to apply social pressure, 
and in the Austrian Slav provinces it is the 
Germans and Italians who benefit by it. 

According to the Austrian census there are 
only 1,252,940 Slovenes, but it is obvious that 
this statement does not tally with the facts, and 
that, owing to the methods employed during the 
census-taking' as well as^ tp deliberate^ falsifications;, 
the number of Slovenes actually living in Austria 
is grossly understated. 
\^ There are 491,000 Slovenes in Carniola, 
410,000 in Styria, 120,000 in Carinthia, and 
437,385 Slovenes and Croats in the Austro-Hun- 
garian Littoral. In Carniola and the Littoral the 
Slovenes are in absolute numerical majority, but 
in the other provinces, although forming a 
compact population, they are in actual, but large 
minority. In Styria 29 per cent, of the popula- 



THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH 33 

tion are Slovenes, and 71 per cent. Germans, in 
Carinthia 22 per cent, are Slovenes, and 78 per 
cent. Germans. The following statistics will show 
the force of the German thrust towards the 
Adriatic . 

In 1 8 5 1 the Slovene population of Styria 
amounted to 36 per cent., in 1910 only, to 
29*37 per cent. In Carinthia the percentage has 
declined even more, and during the latter sixties 
it fell from 29*99 per cent, to 2i'23 per cent. 
Not counting the Croats, the Slovene population 
in the Austro-lllyrian Littoral declined from 
39*07 per cent, to 32*22 per cent, during the years 
between 1857 and 1910. Surely these figures 
are enough to refute the Italian argument that 
the Slav element in the Adriatic provinces is 
encouraged by the Austrian Government. 

Within the last fifty years the number of 
Slovenes in the Austro-lllyrian Littoral has 
not only not increased, but actually declined by 
7 per cent. Only in Carniola the Slovene element 
has increased from 88 per cent, in 1857 to 
94 per cent, in 191 o. In this province, therefore, 
the Germans are in a minority of 6 per cent, 
against 94 per cent. Slovenes. Like Prague in 
Bohemia, Ljubljana (Laibach), the capital of 
Carniola, was only very recently captured by the 
Slavs. In 1 88 1 Ljubljana elected its first Slovene 
mayor. i 

In a State in which various nationalities 
3 



34 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

compete with each other, it is not only important 
to establish the actual number of each nationality, 
but also its rate of increase. In this respect 
the Slovenes have to enter a decided deficit. The 
Slovene rate of increase falls short of the averagie 
in the Empire. The average increase of the 
population between 1900 and 1 910 amounted to 
9*44 per cent. But during this period the 
Slovene population only increased by i"37 per 
cent., the Germans by 8" 3 8 per cent., and the 
Italians by 7* 6 7 per cent. These figures speak 
volumes. The whole national tragedy of the 
Slovenes is expressed in these dry statistics, and 
they prove the appalling" pressure exercised by 
Pan-Germanism upon the Slovenes better than 
reams of writing. As the Slovene popiilatioln 
has not increased at the same rate as the State 
average, it stands to reason that within the last 
fifty years one-third of the Slovene population; has 
been absorbed by their foreign neighbours. 

The decline of the Slovene population is not 
due either to a low birth-rate or to racial 
degeneration. It is accounted for chiefly by 
forcible denationalization and emigration. 

Slovene women are more prolific than German 
or Italian women . Slovene family life is healthy, 
and natural, and to this day they are a plain, 
"^rustic, totally unspoilt and uridegenerate people, 
and certainly the healthiest race in Austria . Their 
percentage of adults between fifty, aiid seventy 



THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH 35 

and of septuagienarians is second only to that 
of the Italians (in Austria)^ which is very slightly 
higher . 

The Slovene emigrant goes either overseas or 
to work in the industrial districts of Prussia, or, 
nearer home, in Styria. Already the immigrant 
Slovene working^ population has distinctly altered 
the industrial districts of Upper and Lower Styria. 
Out of one hundred persons resident in Graz 
(Styria) but domiciled elsewhere, seventy-five 
come from German parishes and twenty-five from 
Slovene. In the industrial districts of Upper 
Styria, 75 per cent, of the immigrant popoilation 
come from German parishes, and 24 per cent, 
from Slovene. In the Graz-Koflach district the 
percentage is 81 from German parishes as 
against 19 from Slovene. These figures show 
that the influx of Slovene labour from the almost 
purely agricultural Slovene rural districts is very 
considerable ; but as this Slovene element soon 
becomes entirely Germanized in the German 
industrial districts, these emigrants are lost to 
their own people. 

Certain towns in Lower Styria, such as 
Maribor, would at once lose their "German" 
character if the Germanization of the Slovene 
immigrants were to cease. If all coming from 
Slovene parishes were designated as Slovenes (as 
indeed they are by birth) and added to the 
Slovenes already domiciled in the following' 



36 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

*• German " towns, we should find that in Gelje 
(Gilli, " the most southern of German towtis ") 
the Slovene population amounts to 69-63 per cent., 
in Maribor to 71*03 per cent., and in Celovec 
to 31*78 per cent. Even this calculation is in 
so far unjust to the Slovenes^ as the number 
o£ old-established families, originally of Slovene 
extraction, is very considerable in all these towns. 
\ In 1857 Celovec (Klagenfurt) had 6,000 Slovene 
inhabitants as against 3,419 Germans. Mpre- 
over, an analysis of the political conditions will 
clearly prove that the gfowth of the German 
element in the towns is due wholly and solely 
to systematic support from the Government. If 
the Slovene element were proportionately Repre- 
sented among the State officials, an^d in the local 
government, the German element would soon 
disappear automatically in the towns. At present 
it is being artificially fostered by the Government, 
as it would otherwise be a mere question of 
time until it was entirely Slovenized by the influx 
from the rural districts. Other powerful factors 
contributing to the relative decrease in the 
Slovene population are undoubtedly thie process 
of forgible denationalization through the schools, 
the Government system, military service, and the 
power of German capital, all of which militate 
strongly against the Slovenes in their heroic 
struggle for existence. 

The Slovenes lost their independence in the 



THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH 37 

days of Charlemagne. On the other hand, it 
is an overwhelming proof of their national 
vitality that their national consciousness has never 
perished, and that, after a thousand years of 
foreign domination, they could begin afresh to 
cultivate their native language, culture, and 
politics, as soon as the nineteenth century brought 
with it the dawn of constitutional government. 
The modern reorganization of national life 
among the Serbs and Bulgars is really of more 
recent date than that of the Slovenes, whose 
culture has always belonged rather to the west. 
European civilization never encountered the same 
difficulties among the Western Jugoslavs as in 
the Balkan States. Yet the Slovenes have one 
political feature in common with the Serbs and 
Bulgars. Owing to the extreme newness and 
lack of tradition in their political life, their 
party differences are imbueid with a spirit of 
vehement intolerance, as yet untouched by the 
mellowing sense of political moderation which 
pursues its aim with calm but courageous deter- 
mination. In politics, the Slovenes have not yet 
achieved the necessary equanimity. This lack of 
tradition makes itself felt everywhere among the 
Slovenes. They are, essentially, a sturdy, healthy 
race of peasants, and even their town-bred 
middle classes plainly show their descent. Their 
life is fresh and natural and free from contamina- 
tion by hyper-refined decadence, and in all classes 



38 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the lack of intellectual tradition is larg'ely 
compensated for by a keen appetite for learning' 
and education. There are no sharp class distinc- 
tions, and prevailing conditions point rather to 
the formation of a State on strictly democratic 
lines. In the absence pf well-defined classes, 
all social strata are equally engaged in the 
struggle for national defence and political and 
social solidarity. It must be admitted that 
recently a lower middle class has sprung! up, 
which has unconsciously begun to ape German 
class distinctions. But this element is too weak 
seriously to endanger the intrinsically democratic 
character of the Slovenes, and it will disappear 
with the introduction of a truly democratic form 
of government. 

The native aristocracy of the Slovene has long 
been extinct. Within recent years the Austrian 
Government has conferred patents of nobility on 
various higher officials, but this titled class 
possesses no prestige with the people, who are 
inclined to suspect its members of being" tools 
of Germanism. The tru^e leaders of the nation 
are the ** intellectuals," the professional classes 
derived from the native peasant stock, and who 
are energetic representatives of democratic ideals. 
Several old Slovene families have been settled 
for generations in towns, but this native urban 
population has already proved itself a powerful 
factor in the national struggle. 



THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH 39 

The democratic tendency of the Slovenes shows 
itself particularly in this, that education and 
political talent are considered qualifications for 
social leadership before either birth or wealth. 
In the Alpine districts the Slovene peasant farmer 
is inclined to be conservative, but amongi the 
foot-hills of the Kras, and especially in the 
south, he is decidedly progfessive, and takes a 
strong interest in education and industry. The 
Styrian peasant is docile, law-abiding, and 
industrious, the Carniolian is by nature an 
excellent man of business, and all Slovenes make 
splendid soldiers. The Graz corps, which is 
almost entirely, composed of Slovenes, was the 
finest corps in the Austrian Army. The natural 
good health of the race has been undermined in 
the north by drink and Teutonic corruption, and 
emigration has also helped to lower the national 
health standard, but these influences will disappear 
under altered conditions. The Slovene nation 
is sound at the core, and not yet in danger of 
racial degeneration. 

The gradual increase of German influence and 
political pressure has caused the Slovenes to 
become perhaps the strongest, the most energetic, 
and the most order -loving among the Slavs, except 
the Czechs, whose talent for organization and 
solidarity reappears in the Slovenes coupled with 
the more lovable characteristics of the true 
Slav. This mixture pf Slav and German 



40 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

qualities renders the Slovene exceedingly efficient 
economically and peculiarly capable of political 
resistance. Beyond all doubt the Slovenes, 
in connection with the other Jugoslavs, may 
confidently look forward to a great future. They 
will provide an element of discipline, .economy, 
and order in the new State. The sympathetic 
mixture of Slav and Western culture has had a 
beneficial influence on the character of the 
Slovenes. The warm and profound sincerity of 
their feelings comes out strongly in their lyric 
poetry, in which the Slovene unquestionably excels 
the rest of the Jugoslavs. 

Strong in the feeling of youth, and with the 
health- giving breath of the Alps and the bracing 
wind of the Kras in their lungs, the Slovenes 
are boldly and resolutely setting forth to win 
the right of liberty and independence in union 
with all Jugoslavs. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
SLOVENES UP TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

The history, of the Slovenes is by no means 
devoid of incident. On the contrary^ it is most 
interesting to trace the vicissitudes that befel 
these -Wiestern Slavs, who had established them- ' 
selves at the gates of Italy, in a country whose 
political importance and geographical position 
forced them to take part in every great European 
movement, whether in the east or in the west. 
Unlike the Serbs and Croats, the Slovenes did 
not actually fall victims to the conflict between 
Rome and Byzantium, but they suffered from it 
in so far as they were too much: exposed to 
Western influence ; with the result that they lost 
their independence as a State, that their Church , 
was completely Latinized by the Roman Catholic 
clergy, and that Germany, with the helpi of the 
Church, reduced them to coniplete dependence I 
upon her own type of civilization. Special 
interest attaches to the struggles of the Slovenes 
in the early Middle Ages, but the time that 
elapsed between the settlement in the Alpine 
countries on the end of the sixth' century 



42 A BULWAEK AGAINST GERMANY 

forms the brightest chapter in their ancient 
history until the Germanizing^ policy of the suc- 
cessors of Charlemagine. Long before the end 
of the Middle Ages they had' sunk' to the position 
of a subjugated nation. 

The present home of the Slovenes was, before 
their advent, inhabited by the Illyrians, whose 
territory, however, had not been undisputed. 
The first invaders were Celtic tribes who subse- 
quently mingled with the native stock. When 
Rome became the Mistress of the World the land 
between the Drave and the Adriatic formed part 
of her possessions. The Slovene provinces of 
to-day formed part of the Roman provinces of 
Noricum, Pannonia, and Venetum. In Styria the 
Romans founded the flourishing towns of Celeia 
(Celje), Poetovium (Ptuj), Emona ^(L'jubliana), 
Tergeste (Trieste), Verunum. 

Roman civilization, which achieved so much 
in the Slovene lands, was by no means confined 
to the southern tracts now claimed by the Italians, 
but spread equally over Styria and Carinthia . The 
achievements of Roman civilizations afford no 
reasonable basis for Italian claims, or half the 
world might be considered her legitimate heritage. 

At the time of the great migration these 
Adriatic coast-lands were especially exposed to 
the inroads of the barbarians from the north. 
The Adriatic coast-lands were the gate of Italy, 
and Huns, Herulers, Goths, arid Lombards all in 



HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 43 

turn swept through them on their way to the 
south. Many a fierce battle was fought on the 
south-west frontiers. The Jugoslavs in company 
with the Avars were also borne to their present 
home on one of these waves of migration. At 
first the two nations lived side by side as allies 
and equals whose qualities fitted them to be the 
complements of each other. Later, however, the 
Slovenes slipped into a position of comparative 
dependence . 

The foreign colonists living between the Drave 
and the Adria were forced to submit to the 
invaders, and the old colonial dominion had to 
yield to new forms of authority, but mighty 
roadways and remains of noble cities persisted 
as witnesses of the past. 

When, in the seventh century, the ^.ncestors 
of the present Slovenes took possession of the 
lands south of the Danube, they overran almost 
all the countries known as Inner Austria under 
the Habsburgs. It extended beyond Linz and 
Wels, past the mountains of the Dachstein, 
Grossglockner, and Dreiherrenspitz as far as the 
River Inn in the very heart of the Tyrol, i.e. \ 
a tract including Lower Austria south of the 
Danube, the whole of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, 
the Austrian Adriatic littoral, part of the Tyrol, 
Salzburg, and Upper Austria. In the south-west 
they penetrated as far as Videm (Udine) and / 
the plains of the Tagliamento in Friuli. In the 



44 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

north-east their frontiers extended far beyond the 
lake of Balaton. Blatnig'rad, on the shores of 
this lake, was the centre of the political and 
social life of the Slovenes in the early Middle 
Ages, and the capital of the native princes Pribina 
and Kocel. Thus the northern and western 
borders of the Slovenes extended much farther 
than they do at present, and subsequent territorial 
losses were all the more galling to endure. 

It was, undoubtedly, a difficult matter to occupy 
and organize this large country into a State, and 
the evil consequences of haphazard settlement 
soon became apparent. The new-comers quite 
neglected the marshes, and settled in consider- 
able numbers only in the land south of the 
Drave. This is the chief reason why their 
northern and western conquests so soon passed 
into the hands of the Franks and Bavarians. 

The Slovenes were the first among the 
Jugoslavs to create an independent State system. 
The heart of the Slovene State was Carinthia, 
and to this day the oldest Slovene traditions are 
preserved in this province. The installation and 
homage of the Duke on the Gosposvetsko polje, 
a ceremony which persisted until the year 1651, 
for some tinie served to recall the ancient glories 
of Slovene independence, and to this day the 
Duke's chair, before which the symbolical homage 
took place, may be seen on the Gosposvetsko 
polje in Carinthia. 



HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 45 

On the day of the ducal installation, a free- 
born peasant seated himself in the chair, and 
received the Duke-elect, followed by his brilliant 
train of nobles. The Duke had to put off his 
princely robes, and don thbse of a simple peasant. 
In his left hand he held a staff, in his right 
a rope, and with these he gtiided a dappled mare 
and a dappled ox. In this guise he approached 
the ducal stone. The peasant then questioned him 
in the Slovene tongue. " Who is it that draws 
near to me?" The Count of Gorica replied: 
"It is the lord of the land." Ag^ain the peasant 
demanded : "Is he a just judge — one who has 
the welfare of the people at heart ? Is he a 
free man? Is he a protector of the faith?" 
When the count had replied to all these 
questions in the affirmative, the peasant touched 
the face of the prince with his hands, took charge 
of the ox and mare, and withdrew. Then only 
did the prince assume the ducal stone, and 
formally take possession of the land. In this 
ceremony the inherent sovereignty of the people 
was clearly indicated, and the homage of the 
Duke on the Gosposvetsko polje was an important 
revival of Slovene independence. 

The ancient Slovenes were distinctly averse 
from any form of centralized government, and 
preferred the rule of their native Zupans 
(dukes), which allowed full scope to their 
democratic instincts. But the failure of the 



46 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Slovenes to maintain an independerit State like 
the Serbs and Croats was not due to political 
incapacity, but merely tO' the defenceless position 
of the Western Jugoslav lands. The Slovenes 
were confronted with the gigantic task of holding 
back the overwhelming" pressure of the German 
element, and thereby protecting the formation of 
other Jugoslav States south of the Drave. It 
was the misfortune of the Slovenes to have 
established themselves on the high-road of the 
nations, and to create and organize their young 
State at the cross-roads of the civilizations of 
the east and west. 

In the seventh century, before the Magyars 
forced themselves, like a wedge, between the 
Northern Slavs and the Jugoslavs, the Emperor 
Samo created a mighty Empire, which included 
the Slovenes, Czechs, and the Slav tribes inhabit- 
ing the plains of the Laba (Elbe). But it 
required the statesmanship and genius of Samo 
himself to control so vast a realm and keef) it 
together, and his Empire, which might have 
greatly furthered European civilization, crumlDled 
rapidly away in the hands of his weak' successors. 

In the early Middle A'ges first the Avars and 
then the Magyars owed their culture to the 
Slovenes. The oldest towns in South- Western 
Hungary are of Slovene origin, as the names 
of many of the principal towns show to this 
day. When the barbarous Magyars descended 



HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 47 

upon Pannonia, they based their own organiza- 
tion on Slovene customs and institutions, and 
from the Slovenes these nomad tribes derived 
their knowledge of agriculture, commerce, and 
industry. 

Even in these conflicts of the early Middle 
Ages nothing short of great racial tenacity could 
have withstood the double pressure from the east 
and west. Nevertheless, the Slovenes survived 
where other tribes before them had disappeared, 
and although their territory dwindled consider- 
ably during the course of centuries, they 
succeeded in preserving their national existence. 
During the Middle Ages the Slovenes had two 
great forces to contend with, one social and the 
other political — ^the Church of Rome and the 
German Empire — and in the measure in which 
the Church became established among the 
Slovenes, German political and military influence 

^ began to make itself felt, and the small princi- 
palities into which the Slovene Empire was 

; broken up succumbed before the weight of the 
German attack. As in every crisis in their 
existence the Slovenes invoked the help of their 
southern kinsmen. Under Ljudevit, Prince of 

, Posavia, the united Slovenes and Croats fought 
for Slovene independence from Germany, and 
were defeated. 

The consequences of this defeat were above all 

1 things of an economic nature. The German 



48 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

sovereigns filled the land with German colonists, 
by, whom the Upper and Lower Austrias were 
completely Germanized, and even apart from this 
colonizing policy the German rulers sought in 
every way to restrict the independence of the 
Slovenes . 

In 952 the Emperor Otto I created the 
frontier province of Great Carantania, which 
extended from the Danube to the Adriatic, and 
was to protect Germany and the west against 
the inroads of the Magyars. Great Carantania 
included Carinthia, arid the adjacent counties of 
Styria, the Tyrol, Istria, the Margravate of 
Verona, and the Furlana, so that in Great 
Carantania all the Slovenes were practically 
united. About half a century later this whole 
territory was reorganized, and divided into the 
Carniolian, Eastern, and Carantanian .Marches. 

All this time the Slovene struggle for existence 
continued — a losing fight, it is true, but so 
stubbornly contested that it has lasted from the 
days of Charlemagne until the twentieth century. 
The nobles were the first to succumb and turn 
their backs upon the national cause. 

Within the course of the next few years the 
peasants, owing to economically altered conditions 
and changes in the laws relating to. land tenure, 
gradually lost their freedom and became serfs 
to the German nobles ; in fact, from the time 
of Otto I until the Reformation the Slovenes 



HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 49 

were slowly being" crushed out of existence, 
socially and economically enslaved and politically 
subject to foreign domination. 

Under the House of Babenber^ the Ostmark 
(Eastern March), from which Austria derives her 
name, became detached from Carantania. When 
the Babenbergs became extinct, Premysl Ottokar, 
King of Bohemia, sought to emulate the example 
of Samo and to unite the Slavs of the north 
and south in one great Empire. But in 1278 
he was defeated in the battle of the Marchfeld 
and it fell to the House of Habsburg to create 
the Austrian Empire, and thus Austria became a 
German instead of a Slav State. 

The division of land according, to the feudal 
system was also introduced to the Slovene lands 
when the Habsburgs took in hand the task of 
unifying them. Styria became subject to them 
in 1282 directly after Ottokiar's defeat. Carniola 
shared this fate in 1282, Carinthia in 1335, Istria 
not till 1374, Trieste was united with Austria 
in 1382, and the principality (formerly county) 
of Gorizia became Habsburg property in 1500 
with the extinction of the line of the Counts of 
Gorica. 

For some time the Habsburgs had to fear the 
rivalry of the Counts of Celje, whose seat was 
the Castle of Sunek on the Sjavinja (Sann), and 
whose ambition always coveted the Jugoslav 
lands. One of them. Count Hermann of Celje, 

4 



50 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

was Ban of Croatia, and sister's son ,to the;Bosnian 
King Stjepen Tvrdko II', who bequeathed Bosnia 
to him. Ulric, the last of the Counts of Celje, 
married a daughter of the Serbian King Jurij 
Brankovic. He was murdered in 1456 in 
Belgrade by the Hungarians, and with him 
perished the Jugoslav ambitions of the lords of 
Celje and their possessions became the property 
of the Habsburgs. 

It would be wrong, however, to assume that 
Slovene speech and political tradition came to 
a sudden end. The legendary King Mathias lived 
on in the hearts of the people as the symbol of 
Slovene independence, and through the greater 
part of the Middle Ages they possessed a 
national aristocracy which was only very gradually 
absorbed by the German nobility. The records 
of the thirteenth century show a large number 
of Slovene titled names. Till the thirteenth 
century the Slovene tongue possessed a legal 
status, and was spoken by both princes and 
nobles. In 1227 the Minnesingier Ulric von 
Lichtenstein greeted the knighthood and nobility 
of Carinthia in Slovene. Slovene was the 
language used in solemn ceremonial of the ducal 
investiture, and Slovene was the language of the 
Court of Celovec and Vienna. 

The Abbot Ivan of Vetrinje, in dejscribin'g' the 
investiture of 1286, relates that when the Duke 
of Carinthia was accused before thte Emperor 



HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 51 

of certain offences, he had to conduct his defence 
in Slovene, and moreover had to deliver judgment 
in that language before the Emperor. At the 
time of the Turkish wars the approach of the 
Turks was signalled by messages in Slovene, 
written in Glagolitic characters, and called 
Turski glasi ("Turkish voices"), and the 
missives convoking the Diet of Carniola con- 
tain Slovene signatures written in Old Slav 
characters . 

But all this time the Holy Roman Empire of 
the Germans pressed upon the Slovenes with all 
the weight of its huge organization, stifling every 
possibility of fiurther development, confiscating 
land and liberty. And their greatest calamity 
lay in this, that the frontier of the Empire, passing 
from the Quarnero across the Kras to the Drava, 
constituted an insurmountable barrier between 
them and the Jugoslav States, and prevented all 
political co-operation between them and their 
kinsmen. 

On the other hand, they enjoyed certain 
advantages by being united under Habsburg 
suzerainty in the historically and socially homo- 
geneous group of provinces corresponding to the 
former Great Carinthia. The Habsburgs have 
always recognized the indivisibility of Carinthia, 
Styria, and Carniola, and at each redistribution 
of the lands, these three with Gorica and Istria 
have been grouped together. In support of our 



52 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

assertion that the cohesion of these lands is based 
upon historical law no less than upon economic 
expedience, we would refer the reader to the 
expert opinion of Arnold Luschin von Ebengl-eiuth', 
the German nationalist professor of Austrian 
Historical Law in Graz, who in his *' Grundriss 
der Osterreichischen Reichsgeschichte *' makJes the 
following statement : *' Oti the other hand, certain 
ancient relations subsisted between the three 
Alpine countries, Styria, Carinthia, and Camiola, 
which had at one time been included in the 
Dukedom of Carantania, which after the invasion 
of 1335, revived speedily, owingi to a similarity 
of population and eootnomic conditions. In 
matters pf law as well as of politics Styria then 
assumed the leadership of the three lands which' 
in the fifteenth century iwere rief erred to collectively* 
as the lower Inner Lands, and subsequently as 
Inner Austria." 

The great events of history, however, have 
always brought out the solidarity of all the 
Jugoslavs, not excepting the Slovenes. Thus the 
Turkish wars created a powerful bond of union 
between the Jugoslavs, not merely becau:se of the 
common danger and necessity for defence, but 
because the Turkish invasions drove many of 
the more southern of the Jugoslavs northwards, 
and these migrations by intermingling the south 
and north greatly strengthened the sense of racial 
unity. 



HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 53 

The Reformation reacted greatly upon the 
Slovenes. It seemed as if the nightmare of 
[ centuries had come to an end ; a free national 
intellectual life began to- spring up from the 
/ ashes of the past, and spiritual freedom quickened 
the beginnings of a new national awakening ; 
but to a pauperized peasantry opposed to an 
estranged aristocracy the economic problem of 
material welfare was of greater importance than 
the spiritual awakening^. 

The struggle of the Croat and Slovene 
peasantry for the old pravAa (rights) for 
economic emancipation came to a tragic end, 
but it was of incalculable material and social 
value. For the first time the mass of Croat 
and Slovene peoples feh the mighty bond of 
common interest, and the effort to obtain better 
conditions became a political necessity. The 
armed crowds, headed by the Croato- Slovene 
peasant, King Matija Gubec, demanded, not only 
an improvement in their economically desperate 
position^ biit that the coimmori people should 
have a voice in a national g'overnment. This 
Croato -Slovene pieasant -insurrection was stifled in 
blood. 

After this the national life of the Slovenes 
sank into hopeless apathy. In the seventeenth 
century that great apostle of Germanization, 
Joseph II, almost succeeded in completing the 
work of Charlemagne, and both Church and State 



54 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

strove with increasing persistency to rob the 
Slovenes of their national consciousness. 

In this extremity help came most unexpectedly 
from that titanic war of liberation, the great 
French Revolution. 

The political ideas and theories of the French 
Revolution were of decisive moment for the 
regeneration of the Slovenes. From secular 
humiliation, social misery, and intellectual back- 
wardness the new political idea led the peoples 
forth to a promised land of nationalistic ideab, 
and no nation benefited more by this mighty 
awakening than the Slovenes, who in spite of 
their wonderful racial tenacity no longef had the 
strength to resist Germanism in its new form 
of absolutism. , , 



CHAPTER V 

THE FRENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS (1809-13) 

In striking contrast to the somewhat drab and 
uneventful course of Slovene history as a whole 
the four years of French' rule stand out as a 
brilliant period of prosperity and incident, 
deserving special mention in the history of French 
civilization and statesmanship. Any student of 
Jugoslav history comparing those days with our 
own time cannot help being' struck by many 
points of resemblance. To-day, as it did one 
hundred years ago, the world is passing through 
a momentous crisis which will decide the fate 
of future generations. Napoleon I created the 
I first modern political union between Slovenes and 
Croats by which they might have attained 
independence and become the nucleus of a 
national State. Guided by his genius and 
intuition. Napoleon g'ave birth to a polity which 
during the course of the nineteenth century might 
easily have expanded into a great Jugoslav 
State if Napoleon's own Empire had not 

perished so soon. Napoleon was the first to 

55 



56 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

understand the Jugoslav question and to realize 
the inherent possibilities of the Jugoslav future. 
He fully appreciated the unique geographical 
position of the Slovene lands, and was convinced 
that they contained the promise of a great 
commercial development. The lUyrian provinces 
were to be the link between France and the 
East. 

What France achieved in the Slovene lands 
within the space of a few years forms one of 
the most important chapters in the history of 
Napoleonic administration and politics. 

According to Napoleon the whole country 
between the Soca (Isonzo) and the Skva, ** as 
far as Bosnia," was Slovene territory. By the 
Peace of Schonbrunn Carniola, the Slovene por- 
tion of Carinthia, part of the Tyrol, Croatia south 
of the Sava, also Trieste, Gorica, Gradisk'a, and 
the Austrian portion of Istria were ceded to 
Napoleon by the Emperor of Austria. Dalmatia, 
Venetian Istria, and the Republic of Ragusa had 
been previously taken by France. Out of all 
the countries Napoleon created the pays I It y tie m ; 
and it was a polity in which Jugoslavs, Italians, 
and Germans were to live side by side. But the 
Jugoslavs were to be the mainstay of this State, 
in which they formed the overwhelming majority, 
and the Slovene city of Ljubljana was to be the 
capital of this new Jugoslav State. Never before 
had Carniolians, Dalmatians, Tyrolese been united 



THE FRENCH IN SLOVENE LANDS 57 

under a common administration. Marmont justly 
remarked that Croatian frontiersmen, Triestine 
merchants, Carniolian landowners, miners from 
Istria and Bleiberg', as well as sailors from 
Dalmatia and Albania, were all made subject to 
the same laws within this polyglot State. But 
Napoleon never doubted the possibility of 
including all these apparently divergent factors 
in one State under a homogeneous legal admin- 
istration . 

It is significant that Napoleon did not include 
the terre irredenta with Italy but with the pays 
Illyrlens. Napoleon fully realized that Trieste 
without a Slovene hinterland could not exist any 
more than the Slovene hinterland without Trieste. 
He readily discerned that Venice and Trieste must 
always be rivals, and never could be allies. 
On September 15, 1809, one month before the 
Peace of Schonbrunn, he wrote that he would 
crush Trieste as being after all of no importance, 
since Venice was in his possession, and his genius 
fully endorses the forecast that an Italian annexa- 
tion would mean the economic and commercial 
ruin of Trieste as a seaport. 

The administration of the new State was 
defined by the decree of 1809. Illyria was 
divided into seven provinces : Carniola (with its 
capital of Ljubljana), Carinthia, with Beljak 
(Villach), Istria (with Trieste), Civil Croatia (with 
Karlovac), Dalmatia (with Zadar), Dubroynik 



58 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

(Ragusa) and Kotr with the capital of Dubrovnik 
(Ragusa), and finally the military frontier as a 
seventh province. The object in creating this 
State was (as the author observes in his 
" Constitution and Administration of the Illyrian 
Territory," page 114) to enable France to 
penetrate towards the East. Napoleon was the 
first who rightly understood the importance of 
the Balkan States, and the value of the Illyrian 
territory for the conquest of the Near East. One 
hundred years later Pan-German expansionist 
policy chose the same route towards the East 
through the Jugoslav lands. But compare the 
wisdom of Napoleon with the clumsy brutality 
of the Prussian Junkerdom of 1914. 

The Illyrian lands were in every way distinct 
from the Kingdom of Italy, though both werei 
subject to the same sovereigns. An Italian 
possessed no right of citizenship in Trieste, any 
more than an Illyrian did in Milan. 

At first the French statesmen in Paris were 
undecided as to the best way of organizing the 
Illyrian lands, and the decree which finally 
regulated their Constitution was not completed 
before 1 8 1 1 . It was an extremely difficult task 
to devise a homogeneous system of government 
for a territory including such contrasting elements 
as regards nationality and culture. The same 
problem which will have to be faced by the 
Juj^oslavs at the conclusion of the war was 



THE FRENCH IN SLOVENE LANDS 59 

energetically taken in hand by Napoleon and his 
fellow- workers one hundred years ago. Con- 
flicting interests, the creations of centuries, had to 
be reconciled. Three languages, the Jugoslav, 
I the German, and the Italian, and two religions, 
the Catholic and the Orthodox, contended with 
each other for supremacy in these countries. Thte 
Venetian Government, in this respect a worthy 
compeer of the Austi'ian, had oonsigtied its 
subjects to total economic and intellectual neglect. 
The ancien regime had been a regime of con- 
servative reaction under which the country had 
vegetated and languished in ignorance and thrift- 
lessness. The new age brought a new type of 
I official of the French school, full of new and 
entirely different ideas on administration. The 
very sharpness of the contrast preveinted many 
a wise and noble project from maturing'. A 
! Governor-General stood at the head of the 
llllyrian administration. He was Commander-in- 
Chief of all naval and military forces. In many 
I ways the Illyrian lands bore the character of a 
military frontier province. Strictly speaking the 
j Governor- General was not the chief adminis- 
krative official, but the chief control of the 
j administration was vested in him. The Emperor 
'appointed the officials, but the Governor -General 
I had to confirm the appointment. The decree 
|i especially provided for the employment of 
native officials in the various departments of local 



60 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

administration. But in practice it proved exceed- 
ingly difficult to carry out this order of the 
decree, owing to the insufficient number of natives 
possessing the necessary qualifications. The 
Governor -General appointed the Mayors of the 
various provincial capitals, a provision which was 
consistent with the general tendency of the decree 
to minimize the power of the local government. 
The whole machinery of the administration rested 
in the hands of the General Intendant, the modern 
counterpart of the French' Intendant of the old 
regime. The French Intendant of a former 
generation had been a finance official. The 
finances of the State are the first and most 
important administrative problem, and so the 
Intendant of Illyria bore the suitable title of 
** Intendant- General des finances." The Governor- 
General was the military head of the lUyrian 
Provinces, and the Intendant -General the head 
of the Civil Administration. As the country was 
more or less of the nature of a military frontier 
province, it is obvious that the whole administra- 
tive system was subordinated to the Governor- 
General . 

Such a system has one fatal drawback- 
it fosters an opposition between military and 
civil administration, which is apt to hinder its 
efficiency. And as a 'matter of fact this opposition 
caused many difficulties in the government of 
Illyria, 



THE FRENCH IN SLOVENE LANDS 61 

The two highest finance officials under the 
Intendant-General were a " Receiver- General " 
and a '* Tresorier.*' The Governor- General was 
assisted by the " Lesser Council " {le Petit 
Conseil), consisting of the Intendant-General, 
the Commissioner of Justice, Chief Justice of the 
country, and two Judges lof the Court of Appeal 
in Ljubljana. The Petit Conseit was the 
highest Court of Appeal, and at the same time 
the supreme Court of Administration. 

Each province had its own Intendant. Accord- 
ing to the decree ** the Intendants of the Illyrian 
provinces exercise the same functions as the 
prefects of the Departments of the Empire." 

Each province was subdivided into districts, 
which were governed by '* sub -delegates." 

The creators of the Illyrian provinces 
committed an error in not creating district local 
! government ; but we must remember that thfe 
official attitude of the Empire was not favourable 
to local government, or indeed' to any form of 
Home Rule. 

The worst reproach', however, that can justly 

»be levelljed at the French administration is that 

\ it sought too rapidly to engraft French institu- 

Uions upon a new and immature State. The 

Napoleonic era was characterized by a tendency 

towards centralization. But the weaktiess would 

doubtless have been eventually remedied in 

Tllyria. , , 



62 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Napoleon separated the administrative from the 
judicial system in Illyria, whereas hitherto there 
had been no division between the two depart- 
ments. Judicial procedure was modelled strictly 
upon the French plan. It was Napoleon's greatest 
merit that he introduced ithe Code Civile. By 
a decree of the lUyrian Government the Code 
Civile was translated into the three languages of 
the country. The Napoleonic Code abolished 
the law of entail, but this led to the land 
being gradually broken up into holdings too 
small to be practical, especially in the Slovene 
lands. 

The chief support of the Illyrian Government 
was the Army. Marmont, the first great 
organizer of Illyria, caused the French military, 
regulations to be translated into the Illyrian 
tongues. 

Napoleon devised a special regime for the 
Croatian military frontier, formerly the bulwark 
of the cotmtry against the Turks. Here the old 
military constitution remained in force, and the 
military commandants also acted as justices and 
administrators. When the abolition of the 
Croatian military frontier was suggested to^ 
Napoleon, he cried, "Are you fools? The 
Croats are not Frenchmen I" He had the greatest 
admiration for the disposition of the military 
frontier. His military genius was fascinated b] 
this typical organization of a people remarkabl 



THE FRENCH IN SLOVENE LANDS 63 

in arms. Undoubtedly, the military virtues pf 
this nation of soldiers were well calculated to 
arouse Napoleon's unreserved approval. 

The French introduced an entirely new system 
of taxation, which, however, provoked strong 
opposition from the Conservative element. 

Illyria suffered heavily under the Continental 
Blockade. The whole customs policy of Illyria 
was founded on the assumption of a great 
increase in French trade, and the creation of an 
Illyrian industry. It was a time of high protec- 
tive tariffs ; only on the Turkish frontiers there 
was no duty upon export. 

On January 3, 1 8 1 2, Trieste was declared a 
I free port, but of course the Continental Blockade 
was exceedingly detrimental to its development. 
The economic policy of the Illyrian Government 
was both far-sighted and liberal. In 181 2 the 
jintendant wrote to Paris : '* The day is at hand 
when the products of Bosnia will be shipped on 
I the Save to the very gates of Ljubljana." And 
(with his mind's eye the Intendant saw the wealth 
lof the East rendered accessible through the 
^possession of the Illyrian lands. Illyria was to 
be the starting-point for a network of roads 
through the Balkans. During the few years of 
their occupation the French erected public works 
and buildings which still command admiration, 
especially high-roads. 

The greatest achievement of the French regime 



64 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

was the abolition of mediaeval feudalism which 
was the legacy of the Austrian and Venetian 
dominations. The French took the problem pf 
the emancipation of thte peasants most vigorously 
in hand. The ** Robotes " were abolished; the 
French introduced social lequality directly after 
the Annexation, and the magnates of the old 
regime lost their influence and social prestigie. 

The French unified the system of education ; 
the so-called " Universite " was introduced into 
Illyria and modelled on the system of the mother- 
country. The Slovene larigtiage, which the 
Austrians despised, received every consideration 
in the schools, and a High School (the Academy) 
was founded in Ljubljalria. 

The Budget of 1 8 1 o amountedi to^ 1 8,809,000 fr. 
expenses, and the revenue to 12,475,000 fr. 

The history of the French administration of 
Illyria undoubtedly presents a record of the most 
amazing and successful educational experiments 
ever carried out by any nation in a foreign 
country. France spent much ability, capacity, 
and talent in creatingi a strong frontier State in 
the Jugoslav Near East ; although the genius of 
Liberty had already been restrained by the 
Empire at the time of thd annexation, the ideas 
of the great Revolution took' root here in this 
far-off country. A breath of civil equality and 
Heaven-sent liberty piervadied these lands which 
had never known freedom, and whose peopje were 



I 



THE FRENCH IN SLOVENE LANDS 65 

stifling in the fog: of Austrian and Venetian 
absolutism. 

A most touching allusion to the French rule 
occurs in a simple folk-tale. 

** In the days of the French, men paid few 
taxes. The judges were strict, but just. Money 
was as plentiful as hay ; there was no misery, 
and thieves were unknown. The great lords had 
to be modest. We were treated well and 
humanely. Men lived without care and were 
happy and good, better than in later times. But 
such pleasant times are not created for mortals 
to enjoy them for ever." 

May France, the great country who a century 
ago gave to Illyria social and civil equality and 
the possibilities of progress, not in these 
momentous times forget the sons of Illyria. A 
younger generation is striving for freedom, and 
hoping for a better future, which France, for 
her honour's sake, should help to create. 



CHAPTER VI 

POLITICAL RENASCENCE OF THE SLOVENES 

It is only by studying the underlying causies 
of the political renascence of the Slovenes that 
the fundamental features of their political life 
and the preconditions for their development on 
Nationalist lines can be rightly understood. 

As the Slovenes were among the earliest victims 
of German Imperialism, and Slovene political 
independence broke down before the invasion of 
German feudalism, one can scarcely speak of a 
political existence of the Slovenes prior to the 
era of the French Revolution. The Slovene 
language was the idiom of a peasant class. There 
were no Slovene nobles, few Slovene burg^esses. 

Whoever wishes to consider the causes of the 
rise and growth of Slovene Nationalism, and that 
of every other small nationality, must pause a 
moment to consider the gteat ideas which have 
created the political and social institutions of the 
present day. The Renaissance of the sixteenth 
century and the gteat Reformation paved the way 
for the French Revolution. The individual had' 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE 67 

to be set free, the society to be emancipated 
from the Church, ere the minds of men could 
grasp the idea of independence for a national 
unit that had hitherto lacked political inde- 
pendence. But only a few chosen intellects of 
the eighteenth century grasped the meaning of 
Slovene Nationalism, and acted as pioneers of 
the future. The masses remained dumb and 
indifferent. 

Even the ideas of the French Revolution found 
no response among the bulk of the people. 
Only a small number of intellectuals began to 
realize that these ideas would eventually lead' to 
a resurrection of the Slovene nation. The best 
men of the nation, among^ whom Vodnik was 
one of the most notable, hailed the French 
occupation and the creation of Illyria with' 
enthusiasm. But although this did not yet 
constitute the beginning of the Slovene political 
movement, yet the memory of the short but 
glorious time of the French rule proved a. 
powerful lever for the Slovene movement. 

When the French quitted the Slovene lands, 
and Austria resumed her reactionary sway, it 
was impossible for an Austrian conservative 
regime to eradicate all traces of the French 
interregnum. The Austrians turned Napoleon's 
pays Illy Hens into a King'dom of Illyria. The 
Slovene nation was never so broken up and 
I divided under the old absolutist rule as during 



68 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the second half of the nineteenth century, when 
the German Liberals came into power in Austria. 

At this juncture an important intellectual factor 
arose, which even during the gloom of the 
Metternich era helped to pave the way for the 
great events of the future. This factor was the 
Romantic movement. The future spokesman of 
the Slav nations came in contact with the German 
Romantic movement. 

It was this that wakened the Austrian Slavs 
to a new life. National life, national history, 
legend, and tradition created a new literature, and 
this literature led to the development of political 
revival. Long before the masses began to rouse 
themselves, the ideals of the Romantic period 
filled the minds of the intellectuals and scholars 
of the nation. 

Among the Northern Slavs, Kollar was the 
leader of the Slav Romantic movement, which 
crystallized into the political and Nationalist AU- 
Slav idea. In the south it was Illyrism which 
strove to unite Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. 
The Slovene poet Vraz and the Croato- Slovene 
Ljudevit Gaj initiated a far-reaching social move- 
ment in the Slav south. The younger generation 
quivered in the glad presentiment of the dawn 
of a new spiritual and political life. Deliverance 
from the shameful foreign yoke in all spheres^ 
of political and intellectual life became thfe watch- 
word of the day, and the greatest men of th< 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE 69 

nation strove to give a new and national life to 
their country. Away with the German-Latin and 
Magyar languages ! Let the language of the 
nation be reborn, and a national literature arise ! 
A people that realizes its Jugoslav nature will 
no longer tolerate a political foreign rule. 

The " Illyrians " were under no necessity, 
to create an artificial literary language. The 
Bosnian idiom, in which the people sing their 
hero-songs, was obviously a natural, melodious, 
literary tongue, understood by the whole nation. 
It had the great advantage of being' not only 
the idiom of most of the Croats, but also that of 
all the Serbs. The Croats of the old Croat 
counties of Krizevac, Varazdin, and Zagreb 
certainly spoke a dialect, which was that of their 
Slovene neighbours in the west, rather than that 
of the Slavonians and Dalmatians, or the Serbs 
in what was then still part of Turkey. Never- 
theless, the leaders of the Illyrian movement were 
undoubtedly prompted by a right and sane instinct 
which enabled them to foresee that in time to 
come the focus of Jugoslav national life would 
be transferred towards the south-east, to Serbia. 

The position created by the '* Illyrians " of 
Zagreb was not altogether without difficulty for 
the Slovenes, who had first to rid themselves of 
both German and Italian pressure. The new 
literary language, the stokavscina, was, after all, 
not the same as the kajkavscina of the Slovenes. 



?0 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

\ The poet Presern and his followers thought it 
would be better for the Slovenes to adopt a 
Carniolian dialect as their literary language. The 
matter was, however, decided by practical con- 
siderations. A literary language which differed 
too greatly from the popular idiom would, Pfesern 
thought, have less chance of competing, success- 
fully with the German and Italian langtiages. 
The Slovene colloquial tongue would, according 
to the opinion of the Slovene leaders, prove 
a better weapon against the anti- Nationalist 
tendencies which were even then beginning to 
make themselves felt. But in spite of this, even 
the staunchest upholders of a separate Slovene 
literary language never doubted the possibility 
of a future fusion of the Slovene with the Serbo- 
Croat literary language. As Fran Levstik, the 
eminent Slovene critic, expressed it : " The 
Slovene and Croatian idioms appear to me like 
two streams arising from the same source . . . 
it is our task to see to it that the two streams 
are reunited in one river, seeingi that both have 
arisen from the same source." 

Although the Slovenes did not adopt the 
Illyrian literary langtiage reform, but began 
instead to develop their own Slovene language 
and literature, yet the Slovene Nationalist move- 
ment owed its first impulse to the Illyrian move- 
ment. Slovene Nationalism was merely a further 
expression of the Illyrian idea of emancipation 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE 71 

from foreign speech, culture, and political 
influence. It would be wrong to assume that the 
Slovenes repudiated the Illyrian literary tongu^e, 
or even became less friendly disposed towards 
the Croats. A study of the mutual relations 
between the Slav peoples reveals no friendship 
so frank and loyal as that which has existed 
from time immemorial between the Slovenes and 
Croats. Never have the two brother -nations 
been divided by conflicts or animosities, such 
as have not infrequently occurred in the Slavonic 
family. 

The divinely gifted poet Presem was the true 
creator of Slovene intellectual life, and the modest 
beginnings of Slovene political life coincide with 
the zenith of his creative power. Bleiweis made 
a beginning by editing the Novice, a journal 
that certainly had no violent revolutionary 
tendencies. Bleiweis himself was no adherent 
of Illyrism, and it was he who recommended 
the leaders of the Slovaks to separate their 
language from that of the Czechs, and to create 
an independent Slovak literary tongue. For in 
the north the same differentiation took place 
between Czechs and Slovaks as in the south 
between Slovenes and Croats. 

The years prior to the Viennese March Revolu- 
tion were of incalculable importance to Slovene 
Nationalism. The All-Slav idea, which en- 
countered no great opposition on the part of 



72 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Austrian absolutism, and in those days rather 
bore the character of an idealistic fad, had 
already taken root among the Slovenes, and a 
new literature had arisen. But it was a mis- 
fortune for the Slovenes that the year 1848 found 
them both socially and politically immature. 

The Slovene peasantry were in a wretched 
position, both socially and economically. The 
reforms by which the French had improved the 
lot of the Slovene peasantry in the countries they 
had conquered had been gradually replaced by 
the old land system under the Austrian rule. 
Under the arbitrary aristocratic regime of the 
great landlords, who regarded the peasants simply 
as so much live stock on the land, the Slovene 
people could not be eiducated to a sense of 
national self- consciousness and manly pride. The 
German was the landlord, the Slovene was the 
submissive, servile, devoted peasant, who drudged 
and slaved for the foreigner. And' although the 
Slovene lands were shamefully neglected by the 
Government, they were, in proportion, the most 
heavily taxed part of the Empire, as was pointed 
out by a Slovene deputy in the Reichsrat of 
1848. 

During the period of absolutism the manage- 
ment of all secondary schools in the Slovene lands 
was exclusively German. The greater number of 
""the primary schools were bi-lingual. In Styria 
"^ it was above all the great Archbishop Slomsek 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE 73 

who strove to introduce the use of the Slovene 
tongue into the primary schools. 

In all Government offices the Slovene language 
was practically banned. German was the official 
language. One of the first reforms demarid'ed 
by the Slovenes in 1848 was the introduction 
of the Slovene language into the schools and 
Government offices. 

The absolutist regime, supported by the 
Dynasty, the aristocracy, the military, and a petty 
system of press censorship, was quite incapable 
of resisting a vigorous popular movement. When 
the February Revolution in Paris heralded the 
approach of a new era, Mettemich's Old Austria 
collapsed like a house of cards. In Vienna the 
March Revolution scored an almost bloodless 
victory in its first impetuous onslaught. All 
resistance on the part of the old regime was 
hopeless. ■ ' ' 

The Czechs were the first among the Austrian 
Slavs to formulate their Nationalist and political 
programme, in the meeting at Vdclavske Idzni. 
The Slovenes could not rise to promprt: and 
efficient action. Events had taken them unawares, 
and they lacked leaders possessing the necessary 
energy and insight. The situation could be 
summed up in the words, ** The hour had 
come ; but the hour is nothing without the 
man.*' The first leaders of the Slovenes were 
intellectuals and inexperienced youths. In these 



?4 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

days of the Revolution, the same as so often in 
later years, the Slovenes developed far g^reatei; 
activity abroad than in their ow^n country. 

Carniola, and especially Ljubljana, were entirely 
without ener'gietic initiative. Abroad, in Vienna 
and in Graz, the intellect was shiarpened by wider 
social intercourse with other Slavs. It was on 
foreign soil that the first political organizations 
were founded lanid the first Nationalist proigrammes 
formulated. 

The academic youth of the Slovenes was very 
strongly represented in the Revolution during 
those days in March. The issue was decided on 
March 13th. The Court and the police simply 
capitulated. Two days later the Emperor granted 
freedom of the press and consented to the intro- 
duction of sundry other liberal reforms. On 
March 29th the *' Slovenija," the first Slovene 
Union, was founded in Vienna. The first 
president of the society was the subsequently 
famous Slavist Miklosic. Nor were the S^Lovenes 
inactive in Graz, where Mursec and Joseph' 
Kranjec, afterwards a well-known jurist, created 
the Graz Slovenija, a society pursuing^ the same 
aims as the Viennese society, of the same name. 
The Viennese '* Slovenija " formulated the 
following programme : — 

'* The Slovenes of Carniola, Styria, the Coast- 
land, and Carinthia are one people ; they are 
therefore to be united in one kingdpm^ which 



POLITICAL BENASCENCEi % 

is to bear the name * Slovenija.' This kingdom 
is to possess its own Parliament. The Slovene 
language shall enjoy the same rights in Slovene 
countries as German enjoys in German countries." 
Special importance attaches to that part of the 
programme which defines the relations between 
Austria and Germany. " Our ' Slovenija ' is to 
be an integral part of the Austrian, not of the 
German Empire. We do not desire our country 
to be represented in the German Parliament, and 
shall only feel bound to obey such' laws as are 
given us by our Emperor in conjunction with 
our deputies. Our Emperor has given us our 
Constitution ; we can do nothingl without our 
Emperor and our deputies. . . ." 

A few days earlier, Palacky, the leader of the 
Czechs, had likewise sent his reply to thq 
Committee of Fifty at Frankfort. The Frankfort 
Parliament had issued a manifesto to the Austrian 
Slavs requesting them to send their delegates 
to the German Parliament. But the election 
of delegates from Austria would have been 
tantamount to an admission that Austria belonged 
to the German Empire. The instinct of self- 
preservation prompted the Austrian Slavs to take 
up a firm stand with the Parliament of Frankfort. 
Palacky 's answer to the invitation from Frankfort 
was at the same time a statement of thie 
programme of the Austrian Slavs. Palacky 
refused to recognize the Union of the German 



T6 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Empire. Within the borders of Austria the Slavs 
might hope for the possibility of national develop- 
ment, but not within the borders of Germany. 
His document contains the following world- 
famous passage : '* Truly, should the Austrian 
State cease to exist, it would be necessary to 
re-create it as soon as possible in the interests 
of Europe, nay, of humanity." Yet this sentence 
does not fully express Palacky's thought. Only 
an Austria which would be just toward all 
nationalities, an Austria in which none was lord 
and none was slave, could fulfil so great a task. 
And only under these conditions Palacky was a 
friend of Austria. His " Idea of the Austrian 
State *' contains an instructive parallel to the 
passage just quoted. " We were before Austria ; 
we shall also be after her ! The existence of 
the Slavs is not dependent upon the existence of 
Austria. An Austria which oppresses the Slavs 
has lost the right to exist. National equality 
is justice before God and man. If Austria 
is unable or unwilling to grant us this, we have 
no further interest in her preservation, for we 
can suffer injustice equally outside Austria, and 
that free of cost ! " In this passage Palacky's 
thoughts are clearly expressed. In 1848 
Palacky was firmly convinced that Austria would 
be just towards her various nationalities, and it 
was within the confines of the Austrian Empire 
that Palacky strove to create a happier future 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE 77 

for the Czechs and other Slavs. He realized 
that the German Empire would mean national 
death to the Austrian Slavs, and his refusal of 
the invitation of the Frankfort Parliament was 
the first historic action taken by the Austrian 
Slavs against that current of ideas which several 
decades later was called Pan -Germanism. 

Palacky formulated the Slav programme as 
follows : The Austrian Slavs will send their 
representatives to Vienna, not to Frankfort. 
Vienna must not sink to the level of a provincial 
town. Side by side with Germany there must 
be a completely independent Austria, and this 
Austria must gravitate towards the East. Austria 
must develop her life as a State entirely apart 
from Germany. 

This idea is also contained in the manifesto 
issued by the Viennese " Slovenija " to the 
Slovenes. In this manifesto the Slovenes were 
called upon to protest against the holding of 
elections for the Frankfort Parliament. It was 
pointed out that all who sent representatives would 
thereby divest themselves of their national rights. 
Austrian history affords the clearest proofs of 
the disastrous nature of a union with Germany ; 
of all her promises Germany keeps but few. Let 
a constitutional Austria be the refulgie of the 
Slovenes . 

Then began an extremely interesting con- 
troversy with the German poet and subsequent 



78 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

statesman Anastasius Griin, Count Auersperg. 
Griin's reply to the manifiesto of the ** Slovenija " 
is still steeped in the old Liberal spirit of con- 
ciliation, which later on disappeared entirely. In 
his opinion it is paradoxical of the Slovenes to 
protest against the election of delegates for the 
Frankfort Parliament. '* Slovene brothers, if you 
separate yourselves from Germany, you will 
separate yourselves from Austria also. . . . But 
if you will not remain with Germany, tog^ether 
with Austria, pray reflect, that the further you 
alienate yourselves from Germany, the nearer you 
will approach to Russia." And Russia, according 
to Griin, and even in Palacky's opinion, was the 
great enemy of Western civilization. Austria — 
thus argued Griin — could only be worthily repre- 
sented in the Frankfort Parliament if all her 
nationalities sent their representatives. Let thte 
Slovenes also send the best sons of thieir 
nation. 

But the Slovenes had an answer ready for 
Anastasius Griin. A political union with Germany 
would be a betrayal, as thereby Austria would' 
sink to the position of a Crown land, and the 
Emperor to that of a Lieutenant-Governor under 
a Frankfort Government. It would be dangerous 
for Austria to form a [United State with' Germany, 
or to join the German Confederation. One 
hundred and ninety Austrian deputies would be 
powerless against the six hundred German deputies 



POLITICAL EENASCENCE 79 

in Frankfort. The following^ view upon Germany 
is really most characteristic : *' In Germany, 
humanitarian ideals and liberty have no abiding 
place ; but they will have one in an Austria 
filled with the spirit of Equity and' Justice. The 
Slovenes have no reason to^ fear Russia. But 
above all things they desire to see Austria 
independent. 

To these views Griin opposed fresh arguments. 
He confessed himself a friend of the Slovenes. 
He argued that the Slovenes had no reason to 
fear that Germany would wish to Gerlnanize them, 
a view which reveals the guilelessness of his 
poetic soul. But it is significant that Griin 
foresaw the future emancipation of the Slovene 
lands. *' Let Slovenija yet awhile take her ease, 
being led by the hand of her elder sister Austria. 
She need not be ashamed lof such guidance. . . . 
When Slovenija is mature, separation will be only 
natural, even if not less painful." In one respect 
Griin was certainly right. He said that a separa- 
tion from Germany would throw the Slovenes 
into the arms of Russia. The true import of 
these words will be at once apparent if we, replace 
the word " Russia "by another, to wit, the word 
** Jugoslavia.*' 

The Slovenes did not abstain from the elections 
for the Frankfort Parliament in the same well- 
ordered, politically disciplined manner as the 
Czechs. Their political sense and organization 



80 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

were yet in their infancy. Vet it is safe to say 
that the agitation against Frankfort was not 
without good resuhs. 

.When the Archduke Joachim gave audience 
to the deputation of the States of Carniola, in 
order that they might interpret the wishes 
of the Carniolian Diet, it was Bleiweis who 
preferred the petition for the unification of the 
Slovene lands. With true Austrian bonhomie the 
Archduke Joachim replied : '* Well, you are 
right ; in several ways that would be quite 
useful." 

According to the Constitution of April 25, 
1848, all the countries belonging to the Austrian 
Empire formed a Constitutional Monarchy. One 
of these countries was Illyria, consisting of the 
duchies of Carinthia and Carniola and the Coast- 
land. Thus the revolution of 1848 did not cause 
*' Illyria " to disappear from off the scene. 
^ Members for the Viennese Parliament (Reichlsrat) 
Were elected by universal indirect suffrage. The 
.» Slovenes sent up sixteen deputies, although they 
were by right entitled to twenty-one. The 
Slovene delegates were not an altogether united 
party. They lacked strong leaders, who would 
have compelled the Slovenes to pursue a con- 
sistent policy. This want of solidarity was a 
consequence of ignorance of parliamentary 
routine and political inexperience on thte part of 
the Slovene deputies. 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE 81 

Besides the Imperial Parliament each country 
possessed its own Diet. The discussions upon 
the future provincial Constitution in the Styrian 
Diet afford characteristic proof of the conciliatory 
mood and the friendly spirit towards the Sloiveiies 
in those days. The Constitution was tOi provide 
for national and political equality of Slovenes and 
Germans. This resolution was passed without 
debate in the provincial Diet. Styria was to be 
divided into three districts. The Slovene (Lower 
Styrian) district was to include the Slovene parts 
of the districts of Maribor and Celje. Truly, 
there was a spirit of international brotherly love 
and kindliness abroad in the Parliament of Graz 
in those days, which was never to be found' there 
afterwards. 

Jn October the revolution in Vienna made it 
impossible for the Imperial Parliament to hold 
its sitting^s in the capital. The Reichsrat was 
therefore transferred to the quiet little Moravian 
town of Kromeriz. Special importance attaches 
to the debates in the Constitutional Committee in 
Kromeriz, at whose sittings important suggestions 
regarding the reform of the Monarchy were put 
forward. Dr. von Lohner, a German, proposed 
the formation of a Polish, a Czech, an Italian, 
a German, and a Slovene Austria. Slovene 
Austria was to include Carniola, Styria, Carinthia 
south of the Drave, and the Slovene part of 
Gorizia. In this country the official language 



82 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

was tO; be Slovene. With these Slovene lands 
Croatia was to be united. This was the 
progtamme of the German Left. Palacky 
suggested that Austria should be divided into nine 
national territories, viz. Qerman, Austrian, Czech, 
Polish, Slovene, Italian, Jugoslav, Magyar, and 
Roumanian Austria. 

But all these far-seeing plans came to naught. 
The reaction was too powerful. On March 7, 
1849, the Debating Hall of the Austrian Imperial 
Parliament was occupied by the military, and 
the Austrian Constitution had come to a swift 
and sudden end. 

Although in 1848 the Slovenes did not yet 
display a determined political spirit in the full 
consciousness of their existence and rights, y^t 
the spell was broken. A people that had for 
centuries lain in lethargic slumber was now 
awakened. Henceforth no power on earth would 
be strong enough to stop the Nationalist riiove- 
ment. It is true that the years of absolutism that 
followed upon 1848 rendiered political life 
impossible ; but the Slovene ideal of the year 
1848 lived on in the heart of the Slovenes. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 

The so-called March Constitution of 1849 was 
a Constitution that never came into force. It 
was the last Royal Charter in which " Illyria " is 
still mentioned among the Crown lands. Hence- 

I forward the word disappears from the official 
nomenclature, and the memory of the kingdom 
of Illyria is preserved only in the title of the 
Official Gazette of the Littoral, which to this day 
bears the heading Official Gazette of the Austro- 
Illyrian Coastland. 

We must not omit to mention that the March 
Constitution, under whose charter no Parliament 

j was ever elected or convoked, was far more 
favourable to the Slovenes than the Constitu- 
tional laws of the sixties. The March Constitu- 
tion bore a Centralistic pharacter, and under it 
Croatia was still represented in the Reichsrat ; 
the position of the Slovenes in such a Reichsrat 
would have been very strong indeed, as in con- 
junction with the Croats they would have consti- 
tuted a numerous Nationalist ^oup. But as 



84 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the March Constitution infringed the historic 
prerogative of Hungary, and Croatia, it was 
unacceptable to these two countries. 

Then followed the dark years of the abso- 
lutist regime. The Slovene movement of 1848 
could scarcely yet be called a piurely popular 
movenient, for the masses — in the true sense of 
the words— took no great part in it ; but, never- 
theless, the main principle of Slovene Nationalism! 
was clearly and energetically expressed in 1848. 
During the drab and soul -destroying monotony 
of the years of absolutism the leaders of the 
Slovenes had time and leis,ure to prepare thieim- 
selves for future struggles. 

It is exceedingly significant of Austrian ways 
and public opinion in Austria that defeats on 
the battlefields arouse no feelings save those of 
satisfaction among the social elem'ents in favour 
of political freedom and nationalist sentinxent. 
The memoirs of Joseph Vosnjak contain an 
interesting comment on the impression pro- 
duced by the defeat at Magenta : *' No one was 
depressed by the defeat of our army, because we 
hoped that the absolutist regime wo.uld now come 
to an end." ^ Certainly this is a state of affairs 
revealing a most unhealthy condition of the body 
politic ; but if we consider Austria's position to- 
day, we must confess that these words are as 
true as if they had been penned yesterday. 
* Dr. Joseph Vosnjak, " Spomini," i. p. 64. 



STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 85 

The year i860 was the great turning-point 
in Slovene political life. It was then that the 
mass of the people entered the arena. Hitherto 
only a small intellectual minority had occupied 
itself with politics, but now the new political ideas 
were spread among the masses. The events of 
1848 showed the political organization of the 
Slovenes yet raw and inexperienced. Now they 
understood how to organize and ag'itate. A life- 
giving tide of enthusiasm surged over all the 
Slovene lands, and it was as if those fair, im- 
passioned years when the young Illyrians, filled 
with romantic fervour, proclaimed the national 
ideals with lyre and sword, were now celebrating 
a glad rebirth. But these were more practical 
times. Men aimed at more tangible political 
prizes, and instead of striving' for the great idea 
of Jugoslav unity they sought to provide the 
foundations of greater national prosperity for the 
Slovenes . 

Federalism and Centralization — ^those were the 
two opposing principles which eventually led to 
most confusion in Austrian home politics with 
regard to the Constitution. It is a peculiarity 
of Austrian constitutional conflicts that the most 
antagonistic political principles are found in the 
strangest juxtaposition. The October Diploma, 
much abused for beings Federalistic, contains many 
Centralist elements, and the February Patent is 
not without Federalist features. Both afford 



86 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

glaring instances of Austria's unpardonable and 
demoralizing habit of doing everything by halves. 
Neither of the two Constitutions gives clear ex- 
pression to a well-defined political thought. It 
is as if their framers had sought mutually to 
deceive each other with vague and deceptive 
ambiguities. Here lies the reason why Austrian 
constitutional law has become a kind of inner 
mystery, which drives the expert to despair and 
provides every facility for a quibbling interpreta- 
tion. Thus the year i860 saw the beginning of 
the great Comedy of Errors, which was to occupy 
the weary years of a full half -century, and 
to lead to the general downfall. 

German Liberalism^ — ^^which was Centralistic — 
was opposed by the Slav Federalism — unfortu- 
nately inclined to be somewhat reactionary — of 
the so-called Historically Constituted Units 
(Staatsrechtllch historische Individuatitdten), such 
as Bohemia. It was difficult for the Slovenes to 
make a choice. They were not an historic entity, 
with historic and constitutional traditions. lOn 
the other hand, German Centralism' was likewise 
fraught with danger to them. The uncertain, 
undecided attitude of the Slovenes in face of the 
great constitutional problems was a great evil, but 
it was an evil that sprang from the very nature of 
Slovene policy. Carniola was the only Slovene 
country that could have benefited by an increase 
of the autonomous power vested in the Provincial 



STEUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 87 

Parliaments. In all other Provincial Parliaments 
the Slovenes were in the minority, and the consti- 
tutional legislation of these Provincial Parliaments 
might easily have proved disastrous to the Slovene 
minority. The Slovene politicians discovered very 
soon that the local administration and Provincial 
Government were both completely dominated by 
German and Italian influence, whereas the Central 
Government in Vienna was much more com- 
plaisant, principally because of the pressure 
exercised by the great Slav parties there. 

Thus the Slovenes could not pursue a definitely 
Federalist policy, nor yet one that was purely 
Centralist ; they were obliged to compromise. 
There was, however, a third course between these 
two extremes, which would have absolutely suited 
the position of the Slovenes. This was the prin- 
ciple of National Autonomy, according to which 
Home Rule was to be granted — not on the strength 
of the historic boundaries of the Crown lands, but 
of the actual, present, ethnographic boundaries 
between the different nationalities. The Consti- 
tution drafted by Palacky in 1849 and the Slovene 
programmes of 1848 were all founded on the 
principle of National Autonomy. But the times 
were not ripe for this idea in the sixties, as too 
much value was attached to Centralistic ideology 
and certain aspects of constitutional law. 

Military and bureaucratic absolutism broke 
down helplessly at Magenta and Solferino, On 



88 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

May 31st the Enlarged Reichsrat (Imperial 
Council or Parliament) began its debates on the 
question of the Constitution. It was an assem- 
blage of specially appointed magnates and 
dignitaries of State. Bishop Strossmayer was 
the spokesman of the Croats ; the Slovenes had 
no representative in the Enlarged Reichsrat. The 
result of these debates was the October Chart eir, 
a masterpiece of political hypocrisy and casuistry. 
The Federalist parties saw in it a victory of their 
efforts, and the German Centralist middle classes 
a defeat ; yet the Charter by no means satisfied 
the Croats, and still less the Slovenes. 

By the October Diploma the powers of the 
Reichsrat (Imperial Council) were strictly limited 
and circumscribed, while the Diets (Parliaments 
of the Kingdoms and Crown lands) were given 
a very free hand indeed. It was precisely this 
freedom of action as regards legislation in the 
Provincial Parliaments that constituted the value 
of the October Diploma in the eyes of the 
partisans of Federal Autonomy. The October 
Diploma was proclaimed an immutable and 
irrevocable fundamental law {Relchs grand gesetz) . 
But now followed a; truly Austrian proceeding". 
V/ithin a few months of its promulgation this 
** fundamental law " was repealed. The German 
middle classes set every law in motion, and the 
German Liberal Party succeeded in carrying 
through the February Patent. By this Charter 



STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 89 

the Reichsrat became an instrument of German 
Liberalism, entirely suited to the wishes of the 
Germans . 

By the February Patent the political centre of 
gravity in the Monarchy was transferred to the 
Imperial Council in Vienna. One of the results 
of the February Constitution was the increased 
number of the Diets, and in this respect the 
Slovenes had no cause to be satisfied! with the 
February Constitution, which became a scourge, 
devised by German Liberalism, for the Slovenes. 
The fair lUyrian dreams had vanished! ; hence- 
forth Slovene policy was paralysed by being' 
divided between six Diets. In five of these the 
Slovenes were bound to be in a hopeless minority. 
The primary conditions for effective political 
activity were destroyed. 

The Provincial Parliament elected the Members 
of the House of Deputies for the Imperial Parlia- 
ment. What manner of representation the 
Slovenes enjoyed in the Imperial Parliament may 
be deduced from the fact that only in the 
Carniolian Diet they were in a majority. The 
Czechs alone had it in their power to support the 
Slovenes in their Nationalist demands. But the 
Czechs pursued a policy of abstention and boy- 
cotted the Imperial Parliament in Vienna. Thus 
it was almost impossible for the Slovenes to obtain 
any success at all. 

The years between the February Patent and 



90 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the Austro -Prussian War represent a period of 
struggle for the form of the Empire. Hungary 
refused to come into the Imperial Parliament in 
Vienna, and it became necessary to find a new 
formula to define the relationship between Austria 
and Hungary. After the defeat of Koniggratz, 
the Austro -Hungarian Dualism was constituted in 
all haste and superficiality. Palacky, in his Idee 
des Osterreichischen Staates ('* Idea of the 
Austrian State "), aptly describes it as " an ex- 
experiment so dangerous that it may cost the 
existence of the State." The contemporary 
generation of Slovene politicians cannot be held 
altogether blameless, because they failed to fore- 
see and to realize the terrible danger- which was 
threatening: to destroy both them and the Croats. 
But we must take into account that, after all, it 
did not depend upon the Slovenes whether the' 
Dualism were introduced or not. That great 
crime was committed by others. 

The statutes of 1867 granted freedom of 
assembly and association, and enabled the Slovene 
leaders to spread the idea of national rights 
among the mass of the people. The Slovene 
movement became a truly popular movement, 
when the national rights of the Slovenes (were 
formulated amid great enthusiasm at numerous 
meetings. This was the timie of the *' Tabori," 
in which the hitherto lacking contact between 
the intellectuals and the masses was at last estab- 



I 



STKUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 91 

lished. At the first great ** Tabori " in Ljutomer 
a resolution was passed demanding the intro- 
duction of the Slovene languagie in schools and 
Government offices. A united Slovenia with 
national administration was another point in the 
Nationalist programme, which had already been 
put forward in 1868, and which now deeply 
stirred the people. The leaders of the Slovenes 
fully realized that Article 19 of the Statute Law, 
which dealt with national equality, was a mere 
dead letter so long as there was no executive 
law to regulate the lingtiistic claims in detail. 
The Slovene programme found an enthusiastic 
echo among the masses, and men realized that a 
certain German Styrian politician, who had opined 
that fifty years hence the Slovenes would have 
ceased to exist, would certainly prove a false 
prophet. The spell was broken, and there was 
no need to fear for the vitality of the Slovene 
movement. The nation was full of faith in the 
future. In 1868 Joseph Vosnjak and his friends 
founded the Slovenski Narod, the first important 
Slovene daily — Si great event in the annals of 
Jugoslav journalism. The new paper professed 
Liberal and Nationalist tendencies. 

During the next few years the national 

struggle became especially acute in the Styrian 

Diet. In this Parliament a small Slovene minority 

i was pitted against a majority of Chauvinists, who 

} refused to concede any rights at all to the Slovene 



92 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

language. The Slovene deputies upheld the 
principle of nationality with sound and vigorous 
arguments, and many a true and weighty word 
was spoken in the debates and questions of that 
time. The following sentence from an inter- 
pellation (in 1869) is well worth quoting : -The 
Slavs would have made infinitely better progress 
if as much had been done for them' as has been 
done against them, and even if they had been 
left to their fate. The Austrian Slavs have not 
had one red-letter day." 

In 1873 the Provincial Parliaments were 
deprived of the right of sending delegates ito 
the Imperial Parliament ; henceforth the elec- 
tions were direct. This somewhat improved the 
position of the Slovenes in those countries where 
they were not in a majority, and it is only since 
then that a true parliamentary activity of the 
Slovenes has been possible. 

After the Hohenwart-Schaffle Government had 
made one last atterript to federate Austria, and 
the cardinal demands of the Czechs had failed 
of their realization, the period of the great 
struggle for the Constitution came to a close. 
The rising power of the German Empire and of 
the Magyars, to whom the dynasty became sub- 
servient, wrecked every scheme of Federalist 
reform. A thoroughly mistaken foreign policy^ 
was a further, inevitable consequence of th( 
Germano -Magyar hegemony. 



STEUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 93 

But at first, when the main guiding -lines of 
the Austro -Hungarian Dualistic policy were but 
newly laid down, the statesmen of Berlin jand 
Budapest were still moderate, and those in charge 
of the Austrian State timidly sought to render 
the fate of the Austrian Slavs less unjust. Not 
by laws, but by bylaws and regulations, they 
sought to satisfy the Nationalist demands of the 
Austrian Slavs. But a bylaw was the very means 
whereby, with truly Austrian insincerity, linguistic 
rights could most cautiously be granted and then 
hedged in with clauses. The annals of the 
Austrian languages regulations afford a most 
characteristic illustration of the inadequate means 
by which Austria sought to overcome the 
languages problem. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 

To-day we are witnesses of the breaking-up of 
Austria, and her friends must note the chang'es 
of time and circumstance with sorrow. But 
Austria is herself the cause of her own down- 
fall. She showed herself incapable of adapting" 
herself to the leading ideas and thought -currents 
of our age. If Austria had rightly grasped 
the idea of nationality, and had realized it on 
a democratic basis, her transformation into 
a Monarchy after the pattern of the Swiss 
Republic might have been possible. But when 
the ancient Empire of Austria allowed itself to be 
taken in tow by the upstart Power Germany, 
and was — most unnecessarily — dragged into 
Germany's Weltpolitik, then all was lost indeed. 
When we remember the leading* part played 
in European foreign politics by Austria in the 
days of Metternich, we cannot but marvel at the 
subservient position now occupied by Austria with' 
regard to Germany. In those days Austria was 
the arbiter of Europe ; to-day she has neither 

94 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 95 

initiative nor a will of her own in foreign 
politics. At the Congress of Ljubljana (Laibach) 
Austria imposed her will upon Europe, and the 
international protest ag'ainst so many Liberal 
Governments was the work of Austria. This 
intervention was set on foot in the name of 
Europe, and at Austria's behest. But it is 
possible to reverse the principle. An intervention 
may take place, not only on behalf of the 
principles of Conservatism and Divine Right, but 
also on behalf of those of national existence and 
the freedom of nationalities ; ^nd a Europe which 
desires world -peace must intervene in the latter 
sense, and incidentally in favour of Jugoslavia. 

The history of Austria and the Slovenes forms 

an interesting chapter. Of all the Slavs the 

• Slovenes have lived longest under Austria's 

\ sceptre. They were the first to lose their 

independence^ the first victims of German 

i feudalism. They shared every turn of fortune 

, that befell the Habsbnrg Empire. The Old 

I Austrian system of Government was a regime 

Ij of patriarchal tutelage over both nationalities and 

\ individuals. The limited intellect of the subject 

i was not permitted to ^vade the guardianship of 

{absolutism. Not only was the individual treated 

'as a political minor, but the nationality likewise. 

The Sovereign ruled the peoples well or ill by 

rule of thumb, more pater no, and the police, 

I'lmodelled on a Tuscano- Spanish system, interfered 



96 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

in all private affairs of the subjects — ^not citizens 
— of the State. Foreign politics and the Army 
were the exclusive domain of the Sovereign. 
The middle classes, the intelligence of the nation, 
and the mass of the people had no say at all in 
the matter. Such a regime is of course not 
calculated to educate the individual to a sense of 
civic liberty, personal independence, and self- 
consciousness . 

In this stifling atmosphere of insincerity, 
thraldom, and absolutism the Slovenes lived until 
1848. This eventful year pvertook them in a 
state of national unreadiness. The Slovene policy 
of 1848 was confused a^id by, no means clear 
as to its issue. 

The Dynasty was not in the least hostile in its 
attitude towards Illyrism, which even in those 
days proclaimed the principles of what was 
subsequently called Great Serbia. The House 
of Habsburg, which had never grasped the 
wisdom of attaching the Balkan Slavs to itself 
by an anti-Turkish policy, looked upon Illyrism, 
which proclaimed the unity of Slovenes, Croats, 
and Serbs, as a counterbalance to the Hungarian 
bid for independence. The policy of thte 
Habsburgs was always ambiguous and insincere, 
as is most amply and clearly proved by the 
story of Croatia and the fate of Jelacic in 1848. 
Yet it is an incontestable fact that the Imperial 
Court in Vienna furthered Illyrism. 



I 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 97 

The Austria of absolutism looked upon the 
unity of the Jugoslavs as a natural, incontestable 
fact, and in Vienna the expression " Illyrian " 
had a more familiar ring in it than " Slovene " 
or '* Croat." Vienna even assisted in the work 
of unification. In 1850 the Viennese Government 
appointed a Commission to establish a unified 
Jugoslav legal nomenclature. This Commission, 
which consisted of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, 
accomplished its work within a few years, and 
the first Jugoslav " Legal Terminology " jappeared 
during the heyday of absolutism. 

It was Austria's misfortune that she could never 
carry a plan, once conceived, to its logical con- 
clusion. Thus the occupation of Bosnia and 
Hercegovina, which added a large Jugoslav popu- 
lation to the Jugoslavs of the Empire, finally 
became a wretched piece of political patchwork. 
If the ruling political system of those days had 
not been the Austro -Hungarian Dualism, but a 
system of Federation, under which all the Austrian 
nationalities would have been equally privileg'ed, 
this occupation would have rendered Austria the 
predominant Power in the Balkans, and Austria 
would have solved the Jugosl,av Question. But 
Germany and Hungary made such a solution 
impossible, and Bosnia became an awful example 
to the rest of the Balkan Slavs. Joseph Vosnjak 
was quite logical in his forecast, in 1878, when 
he expressed his apprehension that the Slavs 

7 



98 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

would derive no advajitag^e from the occupation, 
and that it would only strengthen the hands of 
the dominant German-Hung'arian regime. 

It is most interesting to note the different 
phases through which the Austrian administration 
in the Slovene lands has passed during the last 
forty years, since the foundation of the German 
Empire. During* the years when Germany was 
not yet allied to Austria- Hungary, and at the 
time when Austria's foreign policy, was not yet 
abused in the interests of home politics, the 
Slovene element came greatly to the fore in the 
administration. It was, comparatively, speaking, 
a time of national justice. As a matter of fact 
the Government under Taaffe introduced' no 
radical innovations in the administrative system, 
but contented itself with introducing the Slovene 
language gradually into the law-courts and the 
administration. The Slovenes felt th^t this was 
only justice '* so far as might be practicable," 
an enforced concession to the Slovene Nationalist 
Idea. The regulations issued under Taaffe with 
regard to linguistic rights were half- measured, 
but they reveal at least an inclination towards 
impartiality, towards a more just handling; of 
the administration. Moreover, under him, the 
Slovenes were of the Government party. Th'e 
Nationalist struggles in Styria and Carinthia were 
not particularly bitter just then, and " live and 
let live" was not only the motto of the 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 99 

Government, but also of the various Nationalist 
parties. 

But already in Taaffe's time the Pan-German 
Party be^an to develop in Austria. Fully imbued 
with the old Austrian spirit, and feeling" instinc- 
tively that a rapprochement with Germany 
would be disastrous to Austria, Taaffe ruthlessly 
persecuted this party. German Irredentism was 
taboo in Vienna, and this circumstance helped 
greatly to strengthen the true Austrian State 
Ideal. In every way the eighties and nineties of 
last century were years of quiet and unostentatious 
progress in Austria ; Austrian statesmen were 
prepared to develop the idea of a State of 
Nationalities, and the consequences of the Dualist 
system were not yet so disastrously apparent. 

Badeni's fall in 1897 suddenly brought a vein 
of non- compromise into Austrian Nationalist 
politics which had been unknown before. 
During his premiership Badeni issued the 
Bohemian languages regulations which were to 
place the German and Czech langliages on a 
perfectly equal footing in Bohemia. The 
complete change in policy of the Germans most 
particularly affected the Slovene lands, where the 
Nationalist ' conflict in Styria and Carinthia at once 
began to assume a sharp and uncompromising, 
character . 

An energetic system of Germanization was at 
once inaugurated all along the German and,' 



100 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Slovene linguistic frontier. The German marchies 
began to encroach upon Slovene territory, and 
the Government assisted the activity of the 
Pan-German organizations with truly paternal 
solicitude. 

The old Austrian distrust of Germ^any, which 
had so strongly inspired Taafife, had diappeared. 
The Government did not betray any inclination 
to interfere with the Pan- German propaganda ; 
it was even assisted in Vienna, although its final 
objects were quite openly vowed. An inde- 
pendent Austria is incompatible with Pan-German 
ambitions. 

The true cause of Austria's policy of oppression 
is Pan-German Imperialism. It is important to 
bear this fact in mind_, land especially in this 
connection. 

There is an instructive task in store for the 
statesman of the future in the study of con- 
temporary opinion upon the causes of the present 
war. It will be interesting! to follow the 
unparalleled ing^enuity with which the Germans 
in Austria and the Magyars aver that Serbia 
alone is responsible for the Great Slaughter. 
Most certainly, Serbia has contributed toi the 
cataclysm of the world -drama ; but it is for the 
simple reason that shie constitutes a barrier to 
the Drang nach Osten, to German Imperialism. 

To make Germany mistress of the Mediter- 
ranean route, of Asia Minor and Bagdad, the 



J 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 101 

Balkans had to become a German province. In 
little Serbia Germany found an implacable 
adversary, of unique political ability, and un- 
shakably devoted to her patriotic ideals and 
Nationalist mission. 

During the whole of their past history the 
Germans have never been a political nation in 
the true sense of the word. They were incapable 
of creating a clear and simple State ideal. Their 
Holy Roman Empire was a monstrosity, a 
caricature of all political common sense. The 
Empire was an absolutely vague conception, 
devoid of all political actuality ; it was the very 
opposite of a State, it was a dream, it was 
Imperialism clothed in the mystic masks of the 
Middle Ages. Even in the nineteenth century 
the Germans could not rid themselves of this 
conception, which smothered all rational political 
development. During the course of centuries 
Germany, has not produced one single original 
political idea. If we study German political 
theories we shall find that the Germans are 
behind all other nations in this respect. 

Germany has remained a complete stranger to 
all the great modern ideas of liberty, which were 
conceived in other countries. Her greatest sons 
have always detested political life. The fate of 
the country was in the past lost sight of in the 
cloudland of vague cosmopolitan sentiment. 

^Whenever one of these minds has ventured to 



102 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

approach the problem of State evolution, one 
fieels the complete lack of originality. They 
create nothing new ; all they give us are copies 
characterized by amateurishness, or a philosophy 
which has nothing to do with practical istate- 
craft . 

The experience of 1848 likewise proved that 
the Germans are incapable of discarding 
political ideals which had formerly proved 
unrealizable. At the Frankfort Parliament the 
idea of the Holy Empire was still alive, and 
it remained for Bismarck, the only political genius 
whom Germany has produced, to evolve ;a, prac- 
ticable conception of German unity, by excluding 
Austria from the new Federal State. From that 
moment Germany became a Great Power, which 
is, however, not tantamount to saying that she 
possesses a highly developed political sense. The 
growing wealth of the nation gave birth to an 
unparalleled pride of race. Caste spirit and 
militarism combined to make Germany the typical 
anti-democratic State. But yet she would not 
have had the audacity of aspiringi to impose her 
will upon the world if Austria had fulfilled the 
just aspirations of the Slavs. Austria had the 
opportunity tp reform herself, and at the same 
time to become more Slav, during the years that 
elapsed between the rise of Constitutionalism 
in i860 and the foundation of the German 
Empire. But the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 103 

the greatest mistake committed by the Monarchy 
for centuries, was the great obstacle to thfe 
necessary reform of the Empire. In thie 
Magyars, Germany found a ready instrument for 
the degradation of the Habsburg Monarchy. 

Since then Germany has permitted no reforms 
in favour of the majority of Austrian isubjects, 
and by this very fact the downfall of the 
Monarchy has become inevitable. Austrian home 
politics were determined by the regime of the 
Triple Alliance. 

Through the Triple Alliance the New German 
Empire tended to resume the ambitions ,of the 
Holy Roman Empire. Dead Germanic aspira- 
tions came to life under new aspects. German- 
ism, led astray by its 3ucoesses in industry and 
economics, desired to impose itself upon all the 
nations of the world. Although they possess 
none of the colonizing genius of the English, the 
Germans aspired to be the greatest colonizing 
nation in the world, and strove to attain universal 
dominion. Unlike the English, the Germans lack 
the instinct for creating centres of political liberty 
by a permanent assimilation of the conquered 
countries imder a system of civic liberty. The 
sense for political transactions which avoids 
conflicts and strives to overcome obstacles by wise 
moderation is quite foreign to German nature. 

Having^ no political ability, they endeavour to 
replace it by the brutal coercion by material 



104 A BULWAKK AGAINST GERMANY 

force. Germany was to owe her dominion pf 
the world, not to the wisdom and moderation of 
her statesmen, or to the prudence iOf a well- 
informed public opinion, but to the insolence of 
a military caste. 

The Germans have always shown themselves 
incapable of reconciling intellectual with political 
and practical life. Either they are dreamers, 
thinkers, and philosophers who deprecate politics, 
or they are politicians who despise intellectual 
values. It takes but little sagacity to realize thie 
decadence of the Ulniversities and all intellectual 
life in Germany. Science has becomie.a business, 
and German scientific men have renounced the 
austere simplicity of the great intellectual and 
philosophical era during the early part of the 
nineteenth century . 

Large cities have tended to spread the taste 
for luxurious life. The old-fashioned frugality 
has given place to an extravagance and dissipation 
formerly unknown. Berlin has become the most 
vice -riddled city in the world. Nepotism is 
rooted in the whole of the State organization. 
In a word, the evil consequences c^f a too sudden 
acquisition of national wealth and power are 
obvious in all walks of life in Germany. 

Germany has become the classical type lof a 
parvenu nation. The too swift rise of the 
Germans has demoralized them and desti^oyed 
all social and political harmojny. They have 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 1C5 

emancipated themselves from the intellectualism 
of other days, and have devoted themselves to 
the cult of force with the complete insolence of 
parvenus . 

The Germans, the Magyars, the Bulgars, and 
the Turks — these are the four master-nations, the 
four Herrenvolkery in the sense of Nietzsche's 
brutal philosophy. The present war is best 
characterized by describing it as a war of these 
four nations, whose ambition it is to dominate, 
without permitting other nations to enjoy free 
and independent national life. The victory pf 
the Triple Alliance of hate, oppression, and 
aristocratism would mean death to all small 
nations. All the lesser nationalities see their very 
existence endangeried by this new league of terror. 
Faced by this alliance of all that is hateful and 
contrary to national liberty, the Jugoslavs are 
reminded of the most tragic chapters in their 
history. 

No one can fail to see how ^ German victory 
would affect international life in Europe. It 
would mean the triumph of the barracks, of 
inquisitorial rulq in all conditions of life, of the 
automatic discipline of a materialism laying 
claim to the absolute poiwer of the C^sars. We 
should be dominated by the coarseness of a race 
incapable of creating* a full and harmonious life. 

Law and justice would lose the traditions of 
political liberty safeguarded by the victories pf 



106 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the British and Frctich spirit. The world woujid 
become a vast barracks where mediocrity, would 
rule supreme, with the discipline pf the drill- 
sergeant, and a total absence of noble aspirations 
and individual enterprise. 

Small nations rfequire independence and 
political freedom even more than great ones. 
iWhat is to become of them in the barrack's of 
the future ? , Their existence would be negatived, 
and they would be swallowed up in the ^reat 
levelling machine. The struggle is therefore a 
struggle if!or a principle, for a faith, for the better 
life of the day to come . 

Therefore a grave responsibility rests with: all 
those who desire to strive successfully with this 
reactionary force, with all who desire to help 
in the creatioti of a new world. It were worthy 
of contempt, for instance, if Italy, in taking part 
in the Great War, were to imitate the jDrocedure 
of Germany. 

A comparison between Italy and Germany will 
at once reveal a great contrast. Italy achieved 
national unity at the same time as Germany. But 
between these two State-formations there are 
many differences arising ftom the difference of 
mentality between the two nations. 

Modern Italy owes her most important ideas 
of public law to the Italy of the Renaissance, 
The origin of the modern State must be sought 
in the small Italian republics and principalities. 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 107 

During the sixteenth century Italy possessed many 
profound and brilliant statesmen, many able 
diplomats, who were forced to apply their genius 
to the modest affairs ,of ^ small State. There 
was no economy of intellect in the country. 
Besides many brilliant politicians, the Italians 
gave us the first exponents of political science, 
Machiavelli and many others formulated the new 
political ideas. In Raly there was perfect 
harmony between political and intellectual life. 
Her greatest men knew nothing of the radical 
aversion to politics characteristic of the finest 
German intellects. Hers was another world, 
another mentality. 

For centuries Italy, no less than Germany, was 
unable to create a unified State. Rome, the 
Church, was the most implacable enemy of 
national unity, whereas in Germany there was 
no. such dangerous obstacle. United Germany 
was created at a far smaller cost in blood and 
effort than united Italy. And the sons of the 
creators of modern Italy are gteatly superior in 
political abiUty to the sons of the victors of 1870. 

We cannot but realize that it is Germany's 
system of authority which has become the basis 
of her violent Imperialism. But Italy likewise 
tends towards an Imperialism, more subtle, though 
less violent. Italy's economic evolution has caused 
the ideals of the political rlsorglmento to be for- 
gotten. The old idealism has vanished, and 



108 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

commercial tendencies have given rise to a new 
mentality. Business considerations have dictated 
Italy's new I'mperialist leanings. The desire for 
weaitii has overwhelmed political idealism ; 
Italy's foreigti policy has become materialistic. 

It is an incontestable fact that Austria iwas 
never sincere in her attitude towards the Slovene 
struggle fox national existence. Austria regarded 
Slovene Nationalism as a necessary evil, iwhich 
had to be tolerated because it unfortunately 
happened to. exist. Neither the dynasty nor the 
Government ever rose to a loftier conception of 
the problem of nationalities. It never occurred 
to them to seek a new, souttd basis for a 
reformed and regenerate Monarchy in a har- 
monious development of the various nationalities. 

The State always remained a stranger to 
Slovene character and culture. What the 
Slovenes are to-day, they have become absolutely 
by their ofwn labour and their pwn energy, not 
only without the help lof the State, but even in 
opposition to it. Indeed, the efforts of the 
State were more truly directed towards hampering 
the Slovenes in their intellectual development. 
They were rigidly debarred from all advancement, 
and only under pressure and very occasionally 
granted a few pitiful crumbs of national equality. 
Never has the State furthered Slovene culture, 
art, or science, but only glenerously permitted the 
Slovenes to bear the cost themselves. 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 109 

The beginning of this century ushered in an 
era of unprecedented intensification of the 
national struggle for the Slovenes. Although 
only a few hours by rail lie between Vienna 
and the Slovene linguistic frontier, Vienna was 
blind and deaf to the remorseless conflict for 
the Slovene soil. Whereas in all prog'ressive 
countries it is an accepted law of practical politics 
that the governing body should be accurately 
informed as to the facts and conditions upon 
which the State bases its administrative principle, 
the soulless Viennese bureaucrat knows no world 
but his office ; the conditions out yonder in the 
province are utterly unknown to him. This 
narrow-mindedness of the Viennese, whose 
political horizon does not extend beyond the 
Prater, is not peculiar to Vienna, but characteristic 
of all leading circles in Austria. Thus Vienna 
was blind to the fact that Germany aimed at a 
forcible Germanization of the Slovenes, and that 
all the German Nationalist organizations, whose 
task it was to exterminate the Slovenes, were but 
so many tools of Berlin. But the powers that 
be in Vienna merely watched this life-and-death 
grapple with true Austrian bonhomie not unmixed 
with frivolous indifference. 

If Machiavelli were still alive he would 
probably ^ive the following advice to the 
Slovenes : "Be Irredentists ; you will go farthest 
that way." As a 'matter of fact, in the Habsburg 



110 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Empire those nationalities have always fared best 
who have succeeded in pursuing" an Irredentist 
policy. The Poles and Hungarians are the 
oldest Irredentists, and these are the two 
nationalities which have latterly been most 
fortunate under the dbuble eagle of the 
Habsburgs. Smolka, at one time condemned to 
death, subsequently becamje the Polish President 
of the Reichstag in '48. Andrassy, subse- 
quently Austro- Hungarian Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, was condemned to the gallows during 
the Hungarian Revolution and hanged in effigy ! 
Nothing is to be gained in Austria by modesty 
or loyalty, and the sharper the weapons, the 
greater is the likelihood of success. 

A catastrophic policy was altogether contrary 
tO; Slovene interests, and when Austria- Hungary 
began recklessly to endanger the peace of Europe, 
every far-sighted Slovene was filled with con- 
sternation. That in the case of a European 
conflagration Italy would at once snatch at the 
Slovene frontier-lands, and that then the Slovenes 
of this territory would run the terrible risk of 
being cut off from the rest of their Jugoslav 
brothers — these were dangers which every Slovene 
politician of average acumen realized very fully. 
When the Dual Monarchy conjured up the 
World-War by a monstrously aggressive and 
bungling foreign policy, the Slovenes were fully 
conscious of the gravity of their position. The 



I 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 111 

Slovenes desired peaceful development for Austria 
and for themselves. They had no natural gifts 
for cultivating an Irredentist pose. But now 
it was the Government itself which by its terrible 
bungling created a new attitude. 

The Slovenes regretted that the Monarchy pur- 
sued an unfortunate, foreign policy, which rendered 
consolidation impossible. By an inexcusable act 
of distrust and utterly unfounded suspicion almost 
all the political and intellectual leaders of the 
Slovenes in the Littoral were thrown into prison 
during the 'days of the Austrian mobilization. 
Subsequent investigation proved that there was 
not the slightest ground for these arrests, and 
that the accused were absolutely blameless. It 
is surely almost unprecedented that men 
belonging to all classes of society — University 
professors, literary men, judges, lawyers, mill- 
owners, and priests — should be incarcerated for 
j months, while not even the smallest offence could 
be proved against them. The Government finally 
proved their innocence by discharging all the 
prisoners after several months' detention. 

It might be worth while for the Austrian 
masters to remember the noble words of Madame 
de Sevigne: " Rien n'est plus capable d'6ter 
tous les bons sentiments que de marquer de la 
defiance ; il suffit souvent d'etre soupgonne 
comme ennemi pour le devenir." 

But the Slovenes are inspired by the conviction 



112 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 



that they will save their existence in the midst 
of the great world -cataclysm. They can draw 
comfort from the knowledge that they were in- 
dependent masters of their home before the 
days of Austria, and they hope to continue their 
existence under new conditions after Austria's 
downfall . 



CHAPTER IX 

THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY 

An old State does not easily change its methods, 
and still more rarely and less easily will it alter 
the guiding principles of its foreign policy. 
Austria's foreign policy remained the same as 
it had been under Metternich, reactionary and, 
above all things, the supreme weapon against 
Nationalism and the Nationalist States. Foreign 
politics remained exclusively the sphere of the 
Sovereign and his Minister, the high aristocracy. 
The various nationalities of the Austrian Empire 
were rigorously excluded from all co-operation 
in the problems that beset Austria's foreign policy. 
In this way an utterly anomalous state of affairs 
was created. A country with universal equal 
and direct suffrage and corresponding universal 
military service was absolutely at the mercy of 
the hopeless incompetency of an aristocratic clique 
in all vital questions concerning the fate of the 
nationalities and the Empire. A wholesome 
political atmosphere was rendered im'possible by 
the fact that the foreign policy of the State was 

8 n3 



114 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

hidden from the light of public opinion, and, to 
render the anomaly complete, it was conducted 
with the object of maintaining the German and 
Magyar supremacy. In this environment of 
universal distrust, in this stifling atmosphere of 
vested interest and hereditary authority, there was 
no room for true political freedom', for the free 
development of a healthy civic body politic. The 
few liberal reforms, sparingly granted by the 
December Constitution and carefully pruned by 
watchful hands, were almost lost entirely in the 
drab political workaday struggle. 

To the Germans, with their political stolidity 
and complete lack of political temperament, such ^ 
regime was quite tolerable. To the Czechs and 
Jugoslavs, with their strong political sentiment and 
democratic instincts, a state of political atrophy 
became an unendurable torment. The Jugoslav 
temperament desired a State constituted on free, 
democratic lines, but a hidebound b^ureaucracy 
had nothing but conservatism and undemiocratic 
sentiment for the democracy of the Empire. 

Slovene Nationalism at once found itself badly 
in opposition to the ideas of an lUtterly anti- 
quated Imperial policy, which had had its day 
at the time of the Holy Alliance, and was quite 
incompatible with the ideals of a young and 
democratic nation. We must admit that the con- 
trast was not so glaringly apparent at first. The 
Slovenes were fully occupied with their struggle 



AUSTRIAN FOEEIGN POLICY 115 

for linguistic rights. For the morrient the 
struggle for a modest measure of national 
existence was more important than the greater 
political issues. They even failed to realize that 
a Slavophil foreign pohcy would necessarily entail 
internal reforms favourable to the Slavs. This 
train of thought lay beyond the horizon of their 
leading politicians. The national issues of the 
day and the problems of home politics occupied 
public opinion to the exclusion of all else. 

The Slovenes could count upon the inevitable 
opposition of Germans and Italians. Germany 
employed every resource placed at her disposal 
by the Alliance policy to make it impossible for 
a politically strong Slovenedom to block her way 
to the Adriatic. Under no condition would 
Germany permit the sturdy Slovene nation to be 
master of its own fate and in a position effec- 
tively to resist all foreign influence. German 
Imperialism and Slovene Nationalism were 
sharply, irreconcilably opposed to each other. 
A strong, purposeful Austrian foreign policy 
would never have permitted Austria to become 
a mere under -strapper of Germany. But this 
under -strapper had a task to fulfil, and this was 
to prevent the Slovenes from attaining political 
importance. A resolute, strong-willed Austria 
would have made the Slovenes an important factor 
in her Imperial policy. But an Austria which 
became the mere executor of orders from Berlin 



116 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

was compelled to aim at crushing the political 
existence of the Slovenes. 

But the Slovenes were really doubly, sacrificed. 
The alliance with Italy entailed upon Austro -Hun- 
garian internal politics an obligation to oppress 
the Slovenes and Croats of the Illyrian coast-lands. 
Oi'ders^ not only frorn the Friedrichstrasse but 
from the Consulta in Rome, were carried out with 
alacrity by the Viennese helmsmen of the State. 
The Slovene pariahs had to pay the cost ; no 
one considered them, and as they were loyal 
subjects, it was obviously unnecessary to deal 
justly and fairly with them. But presently .this 
game was played out, to the annoyance of certain 
purblind Viennese circles. Italy herself turned 
traitor to the pro -Italian foreign policy. The 
cooling off of the Austro -Italian friendship pro- 
duced an immediate effect upon Austrian internal 
politics. Austrian statesmen began to fear 
possible complications between Italy and the 
Monarchy. Not because the cause of the Slovenes 
is a just cause, not because it is in harmony with 
the interests of a democratic State, but purely in 
order to counterbalance the Italian element, the 
Slovenes were granted a few concessions. These 
by no means amounted to full justice, from a 
Nationalist standpoint, but only to an act of con- 
ciliation by no means proportionate to the true 
social importance of the Slovenes in the Littoral. 
Those in power were too timid' to undermine thie 



AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY 117 

foundations of the Italian influence. If political 
life in the Littoral had been democratized by 
giranting' universal^ equal, and direct suffrage in 
commune and Parlia;ment, the collapse of the un- 
naturally privileged position of the Italians would 
have been the inevitable and natural result. But 
Austrian traditionalism shrank from' taking re- 
course to such wholesome, if som^ewhat radical, 
measures . 

It is perhaps only nattural that Slovene public 
opinion was never in sympathy with the Triple 
Alliance policy; nay, with the sound, healthy 
instinct peculiar to a young nation, the Slovenes 
even foresaw the terrible danger towards which 
Austria was steering;. The instinct of self- 
preservation taught the Slovenes to favour a 
foreign policy of the Monarchy which would seek 
a rapprochement with Russia. The most eminent 
men of the Slovenes always felt strongly sympa- 
thetic towards kindred Russia. This sympathy 
was not without a touch of sentiment. It was 
a platonic affection, without fulfilment or 
possession. 

Nothing is more untrue or childish than to 
accuse the Slovenes of being influenced by th^ 
** rolling rouble." Never did the shining rouble 
roll down into the fair land between the Drava 
and the Sava. The Slovenes built the schools 
which the Government refused to give them ; 
they organized a National Defence Society, but 



118 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

they did it with their own money. It was a 
petty, somewhat cheap political device of the 
Germans and Italians to speak of Russian money. 
Whenever this accusation is brought forward the 
Slovenes can afford to smile at foreign ignorance 
of Slovene affairs. Without exaggeration, it may 
be said that probably no other nation can show 
so clean a record as the Slovenes in the achieve- 
ment of their political independence without 
speculating on foreign financial support. 

Not only the German mailed fist was a strong 
argument in persuading the Slovene intellectuals 
to feel kindly towards the English' and French 
national character. France had at one time made 
the first attempt at uniting the Slovenes, and 
had thereby won the hearts of the Slovene nation. 
The collapse of the French Army in 1870 filled 
the Slovenes with consternation, for they knew 
that Germany's ascendancy would mean national 
death to them. The Slovenes sought to derive 
moral support from' France, as was only natural 
for a people which was driven to seek its national 
preservation in an opposition to all that was 
German. The encircling tide was becoming a 
nightmare to the Slovenes. Germian speech in 
school. Government, office, and commercial life, 
German science in the foreign -tongued Univer- 
sities, everywhere and always threats of further 
German encroachments — ^that was the terrible 
refrain of the past and the thousandfold echo of 



AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY 119 

the present. *' Escape from this baneful spell ! " 
became the rallying cry of the nation. 

This was the frame of mind, these were the 
sentiments with which the Slovenes entered into 
the World -War. They hated all that misguided 
patriotism, a jhireling army, and the rulers of the 
land in Vienna admired as the most perfect 
phenomenon on earth, to wit, German character 
and German overbearance — German militarism. 
They loved all that had no connection with the 
foreign policy of the Monarchy, and every lone 
whom Germans and Magyars hated and despised. 

It is easy to imagine the spirit with which 
the Slovene intellectual leaders hailed the out- 
break of a war of which all the world knew 
that it w'as to be a Pan -German crusade. They 
realized the terrible ruthlessness of an anti- 
Nationalist, anti -democratic foreign policy, the 
suicidal madness of the whole Germ'ano -Magyar 
system of exploitation hitherto. They also 
realized at once which were the true issues at 
stake. War was resorted to as a last expedient 
in order to frustrate the reform' of the Monarchy 
in favour of the Slavs. Millions were to perish 
on the field of battle so that despotism and the 
tyranny of caste privilege and the vainglorious 
ambitions of two races might be supported and 
perpetuated. This slough of perversity was the 
result of a criminal political system', which did 
not aim at securing national prosperity, but rather 



120 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the social and national degradation of the peoples 
of the Empire. 

It is true that Austria has on several former 
occasions waged wars which were distasteful to 
the Austrian Slavs ; both Germans and Slavs 
rejoiced in 1859, when the Absolutist regime 
collapsed ignominiously on the Italian battlefields, 
and in 1866 the defeat of Koniggratz was not 
at all looked upon as a disaster. But these wars 
were not fought by an army created by universal 
National Service. The war of 191 4 is the first 
war in which an Austro -Hungarian National Army 
— the expression is in itself a contradiction [in 
terms — is striking for victory, or rather for defeat. 
The psychological consequences entailed by this 
war, and still more by a defeat of Austria, are 
incalculable. First of all, the nations have been 
dragged into a war which is directly opposed 
to their own interests, and soon the consequences 
of a shameless system of foreign exploitation are 
bound to appear. The blood of the Slav peoples 
will not be shed with impunity. Consider the 
impression produced upon the Austrian Slavs by 
the insolent threat of the Magyar magnate, Tisza, 
that he would exercise the right to reward or 
to punish whom he himself should consider de- 
serving of reward or punishment ! This language 
breathes the spirit of such incredible arrogance 
that it would be truly marvellous if the Austrian 
Slavs were still in doubt as to the fate reserved 



AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY 121 

for them by a Pan -German and Magyar 
providence. 

The eyes of the Slovenes were always turned 

towards the Balkans. As the inner workings of 

Austrian foreign policy were not at once apparent 

I to them, they believed for a long time that 

Austria was seeking a footing for herself in 

|j Salonika, although Austria was merely carrying 

out the behests of Germany. During many years 

: the Slovenes were filled with a burning desire 

for Jugoslav unity. The Jugoslav idea became 

! the gospel of the Slovene intellectuals, and now 

I the World-War has appeared, a gigkntic writing 

; on the wall, bringirig great aims nearer to the 

Slovene people. The World -War may be com- 

i pared to a hurricane of terrific force, bearing 

i the seeds of new political ideas to millions of 

I hearts, and the cause that is leading the united 

I nations of Europe to make head against 

j Germanistn: is identical with the old faith and 

principle of the Slovenes. 

There is a truly amazing analogy between the 
ideas underlying the life-and-death grapple of 
j the Slovenes and all those ideas in Whose name 
j the nations are now waging war against German 
Imperialism', and it is a matter of no little satis- 
faction to the small nationality of the Slovenes 
that the full justice of its own political struggles 
|! against the onslaught of brute force is now openly 
vindicated before the eyes of all Europe . Hitherto 



122 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

they stood alone in their unostentatious defence 
of the heritage of their fathers against the 
arrogance of a nation which is now shamelessly 
parading the doctrine of Force and Wrong- 
doing in all its nakedness. Without exaggeration, 
we may fairly call the Slovenes brave pioneers in 
the struggle against the Power that unchained the 
pandemonium of the World -War. The struggle 
between Slovenes and Germans, which fills the 
whole of Slovene history, is in itself a glorious 
proof that the Slovene nation has the right to 
recognition and development. What the social 
body of Europe has in 19 14- 1 5 recognized as 
the supreme world-calamity has from the 
beginning been considered by the best of the 
Slovenes a crime against their own nation. Thus 
the stream of Slovene thought flows into the great 
river of world-ideals and world-happenings. 



CHAPTER X 
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 

At the beginning^ of this century the position of 
the Slovene cause was most precarious, almbst 
desperate. The strength of the nation was 
frittered away in violent, but in reality petty, 
party politics. Instead of opposing a united 
front to the foreign enemy, so as to make as 
good a defence as possible against the terrible 
onslaught from without, the Slovenes gave theni- 
selves up to a bitter conflict between rival parties 
among themselves, whereby a sound Nationalist 
policy was rendered impossible. And yet there 
was a truly gigantic task to hand, waiting to 
be faced by a good strong^ Nationalist policy. 
A nationality of one million and a half had to 
hold back and endure the full force of the 
economic pressure of seventy millions. That the 
Slovenes were able to do this they certainly did 
not owe to their system of parish -pump politics, 
but wholly and solely to the innate vigour and 
vitality of the nation. But there were other 
dangers beside the great menace from' the north, 



124 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMAlSrY 

The Magyars in the north-east and the Italians in 
the south w^ere neither of them contem'ptible 
rivals. Under these circumstances the pressing 
need for national defence ought to have united 
all available forces. As a matter of fact, all 
the best and most patriotic of our leaders did 
so unite, facing the greater task and turning 
their backs upon unprofitable party squabbles. 

Perhaps it would be as well to give a short 
sketch of the Pan -German movement, and to 
describe and discuss its virulent hostility towards 
Slovene Nationalism. 

A short exposition will elucidate many im- 
portant points of contact, and show our problem 
in its proper relation to the most im'portant inter- 
national questions of the day. And the first 
question to be answered in this connection lis, 
What were the relations between Qermans and 
Slovenes in the past ? 

In itself the form of this question is scarcely 
correct. During the Middle Ages, and even in ij 
modem times ,up to the present, the conflict was ' 
not really one between Germans and Slovends. 
The contrast was not one of nationality in those \ 
days, but of class. The German feudal lord 
oppressed the Slovene peasant, not because he 
was of Slovene descent but because he was tKie 
subject of economic exploitation. The past knew 
nothing of Nationalist struggles as we know them 
now. National States and national culture did not 



It 



PAN-GERMANISM 125 

exist in the past. The rivalry between Church 
and State in Catholic countries and the supre- 
macy of the Latin tongue both militated against 
the rise of Nationalism as we know it to-day. 
The social structure, as well as the culture of the 
past, was much more unified and ' incomparably 
more cosmopolitan and more equalized than that 
of to-day. Class distinction was due to economic 
position. In the Slovene lands class distinction 
coincided with the contrast between the German 
lord and nobleman on the one hand and the 
Slovene peasant and commoner on the other. 

The mighty state of ferment which gave rise 
to the spirit of European Nationalism owed its 
first impulse to the Renaissance and the Great 
Reformation. And it is a strange coincidence 
that the development of the Slovene languagie 
and, indirectly, the Slovene Nationalism also owed 
its inception to the Reformation. With ever- 
increasing energy society, politics, and science 
emancipated themselves from the supremacy of 
Latin -European cosmopolitanism. The pillars of 
the old, unified culture had already fallen when 
the French Revolution came to set the individual 
free, and thus to lay the foundation of the present- 
day Nationalism of the nations without a State. 

While the ideas of the French Revolution were 
yet in a state of ferment German Nationalism 
found its first, consistent representative in 
Joseph II, the Emperor of enlightenment. The 



i 



126 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

old Austrian State, prior to Joseph IT, had re- 
volved in the circle of ideas pertaining to the 
cosmopolitan instinct of rulership of the Habs- 
burgs. For reasons of Nationalist administrative 
routine, and absolutely in the spirit of a 
Nationalist conception of State problems, Joseph ,11 
desired to make Austria into a German Nationalist 
State. The experiment failed, but it was in 
consequence of it that the Nationalist aspirations 
of the Austrian Slav peoples were awakened. The 
Germanizing tactics of Joseph 11 found their 
strongest reaction in Hungary. The nationaliza- 
tion of the Hungarian administration was an 
inevitable outcome of the reign of Joseph II. 
The stone had been set rolling. Himgarian 
Nationalism, Chauvinistic and aggressive even 
from its birth, called forth the first passionate 
outburst of the Croatian national spirit. The spell 
was broken. Society, politics, and State were 
becoming nationalized. 

The current of Magyar Nationalism produced 
a strong reaction among the Croats. And what 
of the Slovenes? The French interregnum exer- 
cised a great influence upon them, and as a 
matter of fact the best men among the Slovenes 
of that day were fully alive to the historical 
importance of the mioment. To a certain extent 
the Slovene tongue replaced the German official 
language, in so far, at least, as the French tongue 
did not hold sole sway. This was not the only 



.M 



PAN-GERMANISM 127 

gain ; there was another item of vastly igr eater 
moment. Slovenes and Croats were then united 
in one administrative unit, and a strong prece- 
dent was created with regard to subsequent 
aspirations towards unity. 

: An important event preceded the coming of 
|the French to the Slovene lands by only a few 
'years. The Roman Empire of the German (nation, 
,that asthenic vehicle of the Imperialist thought 
bf those days, had come to an ignominious end, 
and the House of Habsburg assumed its heritage, 
which consisted solely of traditions and in no 
sense of political power. The succeeding decades 
Itnark the period of the political weakness of 
Germanism, which was incapable of rousing itself 
!to political action. The Germanistic tendencies 
bf the House of Habsburg pursue practical 
administrative aims. In a large establishment, 
vvhich is to be run on patriarchal lines, it is un- 
doubtedly more convenient if the records are 
<:ept in one language, and it is from purely 
utilitarian considerations that Austria desires to 
give a German character to her Crown lands. 
I Nothing is more significant of the relations 
oetween Slavs and Germans as such than the 
iemonstrations of brotherly feeling in 1848. In 
he towns of Styria Germans hoisted the Slav 
[ricolour. Germans and Slavs fell on each other's 
leck like devoted brothers. But this was of 
^hort duration. This tolerance ceased as soon 




128 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMAN 



as Germanism became conscious of new political 
strength. Already in the Parliament of Frank- 
fort language was heard the phrases of which 
savoured strongly of Pan-Germanismi. It was 
a sound political instinct that caused Palacky to 
warn the Austrian Slavs against Frankfurt. He 
foresaw that a united Germany would assume a 
very different attitude towards the Slavs to that 
adopted by the idealistic and cosmopolitan 
Germany prior to 1848. In those days List, 
the political economist, expounded the funda- 
mental ideas of the future Pan-Germianism. The 
Socialists Marx and Lassalle also betrayed sus- 
piciously Pan -German sentim'ents. 

But the German dream of unity was once more 
buried for awhile. Until the creation of the 
German Empire, a constitutional reform of 
Austria was still within the limits of possibilities. 
While Germany was still a mere geographical 
conception, and while the multitude of small 
States still prevented the German Philistine from 
developing his innate arrogance, the transforma- 
tion of Austria into a federal State was almost 
possible. But after 1870 all efforts were in 
vain. German influence frustrated the realiza- 
tion of the Bohemian fundamental Articles. But 
an Emf);eror's word had to be broken to prevent 
their realization. 

The foundation of the German Empire created 
that accumulation of forces which tended with 



PAN-GERMANISM 129 

ever- increasing impetus towards world-dominion. 
Austrian Slavdom was an obstacle in the way 
and had therefore to be eliminated ; but 
whereas during the first years of the German- 
Austrian Alliance diplomatic intimidation was 
employed to influence Austrian affairs, these 
methods were subsequently replaced by those of 
organized agitation and propaganda. 

The " German School Union " {D^utsdHer 
Schulverein) and " The Southern March " {Die 
Sudmark) were the two associations which were 
to achieve the denationalization of the Slovenes. 
Pan- Germanism spared no effort in the inaugura- 
tion of its campaign at the beginning of the 
present century. In 1895 the total membership 
of the Austrian Associations for Pan- German 
propaganda— oddly enough, they style themselves 
" National Protective Unions "—only amounted 
to 240,000 members, and their income to 
714,000 kr. In 1909 the number of members 
had risen to 600,000 and the annual, income had 
increased by 38 per cent. 

The " Southern March " has no object, except 
to assist in the denationalization of the Slovenes. 
In 1908 this association had 50,000 members 
and an income of 226,000 kr. The German 
School Union exists for the purpose of founding 
German schools in Slav territory. In 1908 it 
had 100,000 members^ and its income reached 
|the sum of 617,200 kr. These two associations 
^ 9 



130 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

were uncommonly active just before the outbreak 
of the .World-War, and from a financial point 
of view, highly successful. The silver mark of 
the German Empire travelled in broad streams 
to Austria. German financial institutions munifi- 
cently assisted the German Nationalist organiza- 
tions in Austria, and the Germanization of the 
Slovenes was systematically pursued with the help 
of monetary aid from Germans of the Empire. 

The most successful and the surest instru- 
ment for denationalization is the primary school. 
German primary schools are founded in biliagiual 
districts, and Slovene school -children enticed 
into them by promises, gifts, and threats. Thus 
the Slovenes are not only faced by the task 
of neutralizing this dangerous {activity, but also 
that of henceforth defraying the cost of their 
own system of primary schools. In communities 
with a German majority the State is not 
empowered to compel the parish to provid,ei 
Slovene schools for the Slovene minority, and 
as a matter, of fact the State is quite well 
pleased that the community should undertake the 
denationalization of the Slovenes in place of the 
Government ; wherefore in these communities 
the Slovenes are most illegally burdened with 
the entire cost of their own school system. 

The Slovenes possess a comparatively strong 
organization for the subsidizing of the Slovene 
educational system. From small beginnings the 



J 



PAN-GERMANISM 131 

** Druzba sv. Cirila in Metoda " ("Society, of 

SS. Cyril and Method ") has developed into a 

powerful weapon in the Nationalist struggle. If 

we take into consideration that the Slovenes are 

one of the poorest of the Austrian peoples, then 

the subscription-lists and bequests in favour of 

this Association bear witness to, a gteat spirit 

of sacrifice. The *' Druzba " is proof of the 

vigorous patriotism of a nation of peasants 

possessing practically no capitalists. Slovenes 

of all classes have made bequests in favour of 

the ** Druzba." Indeed, a regular system of 

taxation was devised to meet the case. We must 

also take into account that not all Slovenes assist 

the " Druzba," and that the strong clerical party 

regards this organization with extreme disfavour. 

In 191 1 the funds of the '* Druzba " amounted 

to 1,139,700 kr., and in 191 3 to 1,203,225 kr. 

Expenses for 191 3 amoimted to 334,850 kr. 

and the receipts to 140,000 kr. On the other 

I hand, in 191 4 expenses had sunk to 301,000 kr. 

j and the receipts risen to 145,000 kr. The 

; schools of the Association are attended by 2,618 

1 children. The activity of the Association is most 

i conspicuous in the south ; Trieste absorbs the 

I lion*s share of its resources, and it can only 

afford to assist the schools on the northern 

frontier to a lesser degree, although there ^so 

! the need i^s very great. 

But the Slovenes are not only compelled to 



132 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

fight for a national tuition, but for the very, 
land they live in. Following^ the Prussian 
example, the Germans are endeavouring', to 
transfer the land on the linguistic frontier into 
the possession of German colonists. This is the 
special mission of the Union "Siidmark." Until 
recently its operations were not brilliantly suc- 
cessful, in spite of a liberal expenditure of 
money from the German Empire. Up to 
1908, 700 hektares of land, purchased' by, the 
** Siidmark " in the territory north of the Drava, 
passed into the hands of colonists from the 
German Empire. But these Germans failed to 
establish themselves in the Jugoslav lands. 
Several of them left the country, again, pthers 
got into debt. But the " Siidmark " disposes 
of a hundred means of corrupting the Slovene 
border population. The Union renders pecuniary 
assistance, lends money without demanding 
interest, and distributes Germanistic papers and 
Pan-German literature generally. 

To neutralize this activity, the Slovenes created 
a protective Union called '* Branibor," whose 
special task it is to strengthen the Slovene 
peasant and artisan class on the linguistic frontier, 
which is to be done by assisting the Slovene 
peasant and artisan with cheap credit, advan- 
tageous loans, and other economic aids. It ii 
the business of this organization to protect the 
Slovene peasant against the danger of falling int9 



PAN-GERMANISM 133 

the hands of the " Sudmark." But hitherto, the 
activity of the " Branibor " has not yet been so 
successfully developed as tlikt of the " Druzba." 

Without exag'g'eration, it might safely be 
asserted, that before the outbreak of the war 
the entire Slovene administration was in Pan- 
German hands. With all sails set, we were being* 
steered towards a Pan-German future. Even as 
regarded its constitutional law, the Empire of 
the Habsburgs was to be brought under the 
protection of the HohenzoUerns . " An Empire 
reaching from the North Sea to the Adriatic " — 
that was the slogan of the Pan-Germans. Very, 
cunningly did Germany make her preparations 
for the annexation of Austria. 

During recent years Austria has ceased to be 
her own mistress. Not the official Government, 
appointed for the time being by the Sovereign, 
■ but the German NatiOitalrai ('* German 'Nationalist 
i Council ") controls the country. This body is a 
Committee formed by the German Nationalist 
parties in Austria, and during recent years not 
a single higher official or judge has been 
appointed in Slovene lands whose name had not 
first been submitted to the Nationalrat fjor 
sits approval. The Nationalrat had a suitable 
German candidate for every post and succeeded 
in obtaining the appointment from the Govern- 
ment. 

The net i^esult of this policy has been that in 



134 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the Slovene lands not a single Slovene has 
recently been entrusted with a higher official 
appointment or been made a judge, so that 
the legal administration has been systematically 
Germanized under pressure from the German 
National Council, and the Slovene element 
brutally thrust aside. Pan-Germanism held 
ujidisputed sway in the Viennese Cabinet, an'd' \even 
in some of the Provincial Governments. A thin 
veneer of the old Austrian manner was still 
retained by the bureaucracy, so as to give the 
impression that the good old days had not 
passed away. In one respect, at least, the ruling 
powers showed themselves conservative — ^the old 
slipshod methods and bureaucratic pedantry, 
coupled with extreme dilatoriness and circum- 
stantial red-tapeism, were retained in all their 
good Old Austrian glory ! 

Austria possesses no local government in the 
true sense of the word'. To deceive the world 
and, principally, to weaken the Slavs, the so- 
called Statute Municipality has been created. 
Statute TMunicipalities are municipalities enjoying 
a specially privileged constitution. These munici- 
palities become regular strongholds of Germanism, 
as German Liberalism was exceedingly careful to 
bestow these privileges only on such munici- 
palities as might safely be expected to render 
yeoman service to the German cause. The Statute 
Municipalities developed into small Pan -German 



J 



PAN-GERMANISM 135 

States within the State^ and above all things, the 
so-called "Southernmost German towns" in Styria 
became veritable Teutoburg^s of Pan -Germanism. 

The resources of Pan- Germanism were not 
limited to the schools, State administration, and 
the Constitution of the community. Capital and 
economic development were likewise at its 
disposal. Alone of all the Austrian nationalities 
the Germans possessed a strong, old-established, 
middle class, and well- developed industries. The 
great Viennese banks are almost all in German- 
Jewish hands, and the Austrian Jews ape the 
Pan-German and Magyar system of oppression 
to the best of their ability. But not only Austrian 
capital but, first and foremost, German capital 
from the German Empire tendered its services 
to Pan-German endeavours. If we call to mind 
how mightily German industry has developed 
within recent years, we shall realize Jiow, like 
a gigantic nightmare, Pan-Germanism weighed 
upon the Jugoslavs. 

But all these w^eapons of a Prussianized, 
absolutely anti- democratic social system — which 
was what Pan- Germanism presently showed itself 
to be — ^^were outdone by yet another danger. In 
consequence of the absurd ineptitude of an utterly 
purblind diplomacy, the strict and exclusive 
preserve of the high aristocracy, Austro- 
Hungarian foreign policy became a shuttlecock 
in the hands of the Pan- German wirepullers in 



136 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY : 

Berlin. Austro- Hungarian foreign politics were 
neither Austrian nor Hungarian, but purely 
Pan -German. 

This, then, was the hundred-headed dragoon 
against which a poor and democratic nation had 
to contend, and in its apparently, ver,y, modest 
struggles this nation has revealed so much silent, 
quiet, and modest heroism, sO' much unassuming' 
self-sacrificei Ii 

This was not only a struggle for the native 
language, but a fight for national existence in 
every meaning^ of the word. In their efforts 
to reach Trieste the Pan- Germans sought to 
efface the Slovenes. Every means justified this 
end. The school was pressed into the service 
of Pan- German brutality. The Slovenes, who, 
being farmers, are more attached to their native 
soil than other nations, were to be ousted from 
the possession of what they prized most dearly— 
their heritag^e of the soil. The wheels of the 
administration were greased with Prussian oil, and 
the result was a peculiar and ill-assorted union 
between Old Austrian go-as-you-please methods 
and the pride and arrogance of Prussian 
Junkerdom. Added to this was an irksome, 
merciless, economic coercion, which sought to 
bring the whole of Slovene agriculture and 
industry under the control of Pan -German 
capital. 

And against all this a democratic people had 



:J 



PAN-GERMANISM 137 

to contehd, a people which had realized the ideals 
of social and socialistic equality in its midst — 
without capital, seventy times smaller in number 
than its mighty enemy in the north, whose 
increasing stature filled the greatest nations of 
Europe with dread and apprehension. 



CHAPTER XI 
SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 

I. Land and People 

Administrailoitiy Courts of Justice, School System, 
and Social Conditions in the Littoral. 

Those parts of the territory formerly known as 
the Illyrian Kingdom, and partially inhabited by 
Italians, comprise the countries of Gorica-Gradiska, 
the town of Trieste with its territory, and Istria. 
These three provinces are administered biy the 
Government of Trieste and form an administrative 
unit. Beside the State administration in Austria 
there is here the self-governm^tit of the crown - 
lands ; beside the State legislatioin there is the 
legislation of the diets. 

The Illyrian Littoral— the name recalls the day3 
of Napoleon when the terre irredenta was united 
with the Austrian Jug'oslav lands, under the joint 
names of pays illyriens — is divided into three 
provinces, viz. Gorica-Gradiska, Trieste, and Istria. 
Each crownland possesses its own legislative body 
in its own Diet, and its self-governingi administra- 

138 



J 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 139 

tion, tounded on the Constitution of 1861, which 
defined the boundary between the powers of the 
State and those of the province. 

The eastern frontier of Gorica-Gradiska 
coincides with that of Austria. It is well defined', 
first by a chain of mountains, and then by a 
small river, the Indrio, but a little farther on 
the frontier is less satisfactorily defined by a line 
drawn somewhat unfortunately across the plain 
of Friuli. The county of Gorica falls naturally 
into four districts, viz. the mountains, the Kras, 
the Vipava valley, and the plain. The first three 
are inhabited by Jugoslavs, the last- mentioned is 
altogether Italian. Nothing would be more just 
and natural from the point of view of nationality 
than to divide this territory. 

The problem of Trieste and Istria is far more 
complicated. It is unnatural that Trieste and 
Istria should be separated from their Hinter- 
land, with which they have been united for 
so many centuries, during which: they have 
formed a political unit with Carniola. Trieste 
detached from its hinterland ihas really lost its 
raison-(V etre . In connection with this fact it is 
significant that the Italians are proposing to 
annex, not only the terre irredente but also 
Carniola as far as Postojna. Nothing but the 
formation of a great and strong Jugoslav State 
comprising a large territory extending towards 
the north and north-east could guarantee the 



140 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

economic development of Trieste. I shall doubt- 
less be answered that part of Istria at one time 
belong'ed to the Venetian Republic, but the 
reasonableness of claims based on historic prece- 
dent is open to discussion. 

Let us return to the problem of the moment. 
It is not possible to divide I'stria and the territory 
of Trieste into distinct parts, like the county of 
Gorica. At the best only the towns of the western 
coast of Istria could be described as Italian. But 
even here one oUght to take into account the shift- 
ing! of the balance of racial preponderance. On 
the west coast of Istria the towns are mostly Italian 
and Jugoslav, but on the coast the Jugoslav 
element is steadily on the increase. The town 
of Trieste is occupied by both races, like 
the west coast of Istria. Trieste is at the 
same time an Italian and a Jugoslav town. It 
is impossible to divide the races. For good 
or for evil the two are compelled to dwell 
together. 

An examination of the figures of the official 
statistics will show that the majority of the 
population of the Littoral is Jugoslav. According 
to the latest census, that taken in 1910, the 
Littoral is inhabited by 437,385 Slavs and only 
356,495 Italians. If we compare the three 
countries of the Littoral, we ishall find that in 
two of them the Jugoslavs are even in over- 
whelming majority. In Gorica -Gradiska there 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 141 

is a majority of 154,750 Jugoslavs opposed to 
a minority of 90, 119 Italians . In Istria the 
Jugoslavs number 220,382 and the Italians only 
145,525. It is only in Trieste that the Italians 
are in a majority. The town has 1 18,959 Italian 
and 60,074 Jugoslav inhabitants. 

Official statistics distinctly, tend to understate 
the true number of the Slavs in favour of that 
of the Italians. The Italians, although well 
aware that the result of every census is calculated 
to the detriment of the Slavs, maintain that the 
Government, in taking the census, magnifies the 
number of the Slavs. Nothing could be farther 
from the truth than such a statement. If the 
Government were to deal justly, it would order a 
census in which not only the language of daily 
intercourse but the native tongue of the individual 
would be taken into account, and the Italians 
would probably be f^r from satisfied with thje 
result of a census taken on such just and 
reasonable lines. 

In the number of votes recorded in the 
Reichsrat elections for the SJovene candidate, 
however, we possess an excellent means of 
checking whether the results of the census are 
false or accurate. As the vote for the Reichsrat 
is universal and direct, it is an easy matter to 
obtain the statistics of the voting. In the 
electoral districts of the city of Trieste the 
I Slovep-e candidate in the last Reichsrat electionsi. 



142 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

polled 9^ 1 1 9 votes, althoiu^h th'e first, unrevised 
census only accounted for 45,731 Slovenes. If 
Italian Nationalist statistics are true, the purely 
absurd deduction would be, that every other 
Slovene had a vote, and that the Slovene 
population included practically no children and 
minors ! 

In the Reichsrat elections of 1 9 1 1 the Slovene 
Nationalist Party polled a total of 9, 1 1 9 votes 
in the town and territory of Trieste, and the Italian 
Nationalist candidates a total of 15,752 votes. 
In the city of Trieste the Italians polled 14,560 
votes (or 70 per cent.) and the Jug^oslavs 6,355 
votes (or 30, per cent.). In the territory of 
Trieste the Jugoslavs polled 5,006 votes (or 81 
per cent.), and the Italians only 1,192 (or 19 
per cent.). 

The result in the city of Trieste was thie 
following: ist electoral district, 2,586 Italian 
Liberal, 1,168 Slovene National votes ; 2nd 
electoral district, 5,579 Italian Liberal, 3,107 
Slovene National votes ; 3rd electoral district, 
4,047 Italian Liberal, 1,006 Slovene National 
votes ; 4th electoral district, 1,778 Italian Liberal 
and 1,074 Slovene votes. 

On the strength of these simple facts we can 
safely assume that the Slovene population of 
Trieste numbers at least 66,000 souls, or in other 
words, very considerably more than the official 
statistics admit, so that it is absurd to speak 



1 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 143 

of the statistics as beirig biased in favour of 
the Slovenes. The ballot, after all, affords 
striking proof of the contrary. As a matter of 
fact, the Slav population of Trieste has of late 
increased considerably. But on the other hand, 
it is an equally remarkable fact that in 18-51 
Trieste was more of a Slav city than it is now. 
In that year the number of Slovene inhabitants 
of the town amoimtqd to 29*71 per cent, of the 
entire population. In 1880 the Slovenes 
numbered 21*79 P'^^ cent., and in 1900, when 
the whole apparatus of the Italian local adminis- 
tration was employed to minimize the number 
of the Slovenes, the percentage sank to barely 
16*35 P^r cent. 

Apart from Trieste, there are two other towns 

in the Illyrian Littoral where the struggle between 

Italians and Jugoslavs is exceedingly keen. 

These are the towns of Gorica and Pola. In 

Gorica, whic^h lies in Slav territory, 10,792 

Jugoslavs are opposed to 14,812 Italians. The 

latter are, however, scarcely in an absolutie; 

majority to-day, because the town has several 

thousand German inhabitants as weU. During 

the last elections for the Viennese Parliament, 

I 19 1 1, the Italian candidate polled in Gorica 

' 1,792 votes and the Jugoslav candidate 1,166 

votes. In Pola the elections yield'ed a similar 

I result. The Jugoslav candidate polled 3,428 

I votes and the Italian candidate 3,877. Acconding 



144 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

to the official census Pola has 15,931 Jugoslavs, 
29,108 Italian, and 9,046 German inhabitants. 

In June 191 3 there was an election of the Diet 
of Trieste. The Neue Freie Presse (Vienna) of 
June 4th wrote as follows on these elections : 
" The National Liberal Italians inaugurated their 
electoral campaign with great zeal. In all their 
meetings the decision of the Germans to vote with 
the National Liberal Italians was sympathetically 
emphasized." 

On June 1 4th the Nettie Freie Presse wrote : 
.*' The elections of the general electoral class for 
the Diet of Trieste threatened also this time to 
introduce Slovene members for the city of Trieste 
into the Diet. The German electors who usually 
put forward independent candidates decided this 
time to abstain from doing so and to support the 
National Liberal candidates against the Slovenes. 
The result was that of the sixteen mandates of 
the city of Trieste, eleven were carried by Italian 
Liberals and five by Italian Socialists,. The Tribum 
(Rome) joyfully hails the assistance which the 
Germans of Trieste so disinterestedly tendered 
their Italian fellows, who were hard pressed by the 
Slovenes and Social Democrats. In this alliance 
the Tribuna sees the germ of deep-reaching trans- 1 
formations in the mutual relations between Ger- ' 
mans and Italians, who, being equally threatened 
by Pan-Slavism, should forget the old contrasts and 
defend theirj cultural interests shoulder to shoulder." 



il 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 145 

Germans and Italians were also allies in the 
municipal election in Gorica, March 1914. The 
Neue Freie Presse of March 29th published the 
following information from its Gorica correspon- 
dent : " The local German political union has 
issued an appeal to the German electors, calling 
upon them to vote in to-morrow's elections for the 
Italian candidates." And on March 30th : *' They 
[the Italian parties] were joined by the numerous 
German electors." 

The Slovenes were defeated only because the 
Germans supported the Italians. Italian irre- 
dentists elected an Austrian major. On the day 
of the Gorica elections Serbian students held a 
meeting at the University of Belgrade ag'ainst 
Italian aspirations regarding Trieste and Gorica. 
A telegram of sympathy was sent to the Slovene 
; political society of Trieste, "Edinost." 

As a rule the officials of the Austrian bureau- 
cracy know nothing of the country they are 
\ deputed to administer. An Austrian official of 
i high rank in Vienna once said to an Italian (the 
1; author of the book " L'ltalia d'Oltre Confine ") : 
j ** Down in the south, in Trieste, all is Italian." 
: No doubt the official in question had visited the 
; Citta vecchia, where the washing, hung on poles 
I from the windows, recalls an impression of 
j Naples, and where black-eyed Italian women 
gazed at the haughty German visitor. And if 
the good man had travelled through Dalmatia 

10 



146 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

at the time when the province had just thrown 
off the yoke of Italian supremacy, he would 
have probably, carried away a similar superficial 
impression. Even now, forty years after the 
Jugoslav victory in Dalmatia, the towns of the 
province present almost the same aspect as those 
of the Illyrian north. 

We have said that the Slav j)opulation of 
Trieste has greatly increased pf late and also 
pointed out that nevertheless Trieste was really 
more of a Slav town in 1 8 5 1 and 1857 than it 
is now. But this was merely because at that 
time the Slav population was relatively greater 
than it is now. 

The Italians are anxious to prove that the 
majority of the Government officials employed 
in the administration are Slavs. As a matter 
of fact, the opposite is the case. The Austrian 
administrative system differs completely from the 
British. Local self-government, in the English 
sense, simply does not exist in Austria. The 
administration of the State is in the hands of 
professional public offfcials. Only men who have 
taken their University degree and are backed by 
social influence are admitted to the higher, 
responsible appointments. The official staff of 
the Littoral, in spite of the great Slav majority 
of the population, is only partially Slav. There 
are altogether 130 Government officials in the 
liittoral ; of these, 43 are Italians, 53 Germans, 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 147 

and only 34 Slavs. Among' the officials employed 
in the Finance Department the number of Italian 
officials possessing a University education is four 
times as great as that of the Slavs. The same 
proportion is to be found in the Revenue Offices. 
In the Post Office the number of Slav officials 
employed is also merely one- quarter of that of 
the Italian officials. Further examination will 
show that atistics apply not only to the whole of 
the Littv :v but also to Dalmatia, Camiola, and 
Carynthia^ for which Trieste is in some respects 
an administrative centre. The gross injustice 
done to the Slav population is amply proved by 
these figures. The Slav deputy for Trieste drew 
attention to all these facts in an interpellation in 
the Reichsrat on July g, 1 9 1 3 . 

In a polyglot country a knowledge of the local 
languages is an important asset. But the Italian 
officials decline to learn either of the other official 
languages of the country, namely Croatian and 
Slovene. They seriously uphold the principle that 
a knowledge of the Slav tongues would constitute 
a danger to Italian civilization, and refuse to 
realize that a knowledge of the Croatian tongue 
opens up the wide, as yet unexplored world of 
Slav literatures. !It is obvious that in a province 
where the overwhelming majority of the popula- 
tion is Slav, every public official ought to be 
capable of dispensing justice and administering 
the country in the Slav language, . The Italians 



148 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

were slow to learn the Slav tongties, biit the Jugo- 
slavs were good Italian scholars. Consequently 
the Jugoslavs have now a better chance in the 
Civil Service than the Italians^ ,and hence the result 
that the Italian element is no long'er isupreme 
in the Civil Service. 

An Englishman, writing in a distinguished 
English review, criticized the Austrian Govern- 
ment for having introduced the Slav language 
into the law-courts, which up to that time had 
been purely Italian. But in doing this the 
Austrian Government was merely remedying an 
intolerable injustice, a flagrant violation of the 
laws of the Empire. It was the Italian policy 
which was short-sighted on this occasion. The 
British nation has, of course, the advantage pf 
experience in questions lifee these. But national 
tolerance is a quality indispensable to a nation 
which has the ambition to become a igreat colonial 
Empire. The Italian is very reluctant to learrt 
Serbo-Croatian, whereas Ein'glish' officials in India 
are obliged to learn the various languages spolden 
in their district. 

A judge who administers justice in a language 
which is not understood by the accused is a 
criminal. The honour, life, liberty, and property 
of a man often depend on the correct com- 
prehension of a single word or phrase. It is one 
of the most elementary rights of subjects and 
citizens that they should be judged by men of 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 149 

their own nationality, or, failings that, by men 
who have a perfect knowledge of the language 
of the population. 

Public education in Austria is organized on a 
system which differs absolutely from English 
methods. In a wealthy country ^education may 
safely be left to private enterprise. But in a 
poor country the national education must be a 
national matter. And this is the case in Austria. 
But, lest education should prove a lever in the 
evolution of the youngler (Slav) nations, the 
State — which is intent on Germanizing — ^and the 
German and Italian municipal and local author- 
ities have always endeavoured by every means 
in their power to prevent Slav children from 
attending Slav schools . In direct contravention 
to the fundamental law of the land, the municipal 
administration of Trieste refused to gtant a 
primary school to| a population of sixty thousand 
Jugoslavs. The school budget for the town of 
Trieste amounts to 3,666,000 kr. ; but not even 
a fraction of this is devoted to the Jug'oslav 
minority, which is so considerable. The Jugoslav 
artisan atid peasant is compelled to pay for the 
foundation and upkeep of his school out of his 
own pocket, and the Government does nothing* 
to, remedy this state of affairs. The above- 
mentioned English writer in his article blamed 
the Government because Trieste contains no 
Italian primary school maintained by the State 



150 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Government, but evidently he was not aware of 
the fact that the prinxary, pubhc instruction lis 
under the control of the local municipal 
authorities. 

But in spite of this circumstance the State 
Government interferes with the primary school 
systems whenever it is a case of artificially culti- 
vating the German element. The State maintains 
mo Slovene primary school in Trieste, but therle 
are no less than two German secondary schools, 
and four German primary schools in Trieste^ all 
of which are maintained by the State. Only 
one-third of the number of children attending*, 
these schools are of German extraction. On^- 
third are Slovenes and one -third Italians by 
birth. 

The Slovene School Union " Druzba Svetega 
Cirila in Metoda " spends lalmost the whole of 
its annual income on the Slovene schools in 
Trieste. Both capital and income of this Society 
are practically a war fund ag'ainst Italianization. 
There is also a Croatian School Union in the 
Littoral, which disposes of an annual income of 
213,000 kr. and' a capital pf 340,000 kr. This 
society defrays the upkeep of fifty-six schools ; 
as the annual income of the Slovene society is 
145,000 kr., this means that the Croa^ts and 
Slovenes put together spend 400,000 kr. annually 
on their schools in the Littoral. The Italians 
also have their School Union, the " Lega 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 151 

Nazionale." In 191 1 this society had 42,041 
members, its capital amounted to 1,128,382 kr., 
and its annual income to 613,931 kr. Being 
richer, the Italian school organization is naturally, 
in a strjonger position than the Jugoslav societies. 
The reason for this superior wealth is that the 
Italian society receives financial help from Italy 
and that the Italian Government has also 
seen fit to send contributions. By contrast 
the 400,000 kr. spent by the Jugoslavs represent 
the contributions of poor peasants and artisans. 

The part played by the Italian element would 
have disappeared by now if the administration 
in the lUyrian Littoral had been democratized 
before the war. It is paradoxical, but at the 
same time perfectly correct to say, that the true 
preserver of the Italian element has been the 
Austrian Government, which by means of an anti- 
democratic electoral system prevented Italians 
from being politically swamped. The Austrian 
regime, with its repugnance towards free 
democracy in any shape or form, was the 
protector of the Italians. On the day when direct 
universal suffrage was introduced both for the 
local government and the Diet, the days of 
ItaUanism would have been numbered. 

It is interesting to note that it is in the name 
of democratic ideals and political liberty that the 
Italians claimed thos^ provinces from Austria, of 
which Austria, in the name of a reactionary and 



152 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

anti-democratic policy, was carefully making a 
preserve for future Italian conquest. 

To these arguments one might add another 
train of ideas which is inacceptable from a 
democratic point of view. The Jugoslavs are not 
yet a nation with sharply differentiated class 
distinctions. They ihave no social traditions ; not 
all classes of society, are fully developed. For 
this reason, then, they are to be reckoned inferior 
to the Italians, and not permitted to aspire, like 
the nation which has during the course of 
centuries organized itself towards social and 
national equality. 

It is our duty to consider this argument, even 
while pointing out that its anti-democratic and anti- 
national character deprives it of all real value. 

It is an argument which is very well known in 
Austria. The German proclaims his national 
superiority over the Czech and the Slovene, and 
the Pole his over the Ruthene. The German and 
the Pole argue: "Only the nation with an historical 
past, only the nation in which all social classes 
are developed is entitled to claim^ full national 
equality." But this argument has the drawback 
that both time and fact give it the lie. What is 
an historical past ? The young nations can readily 
retort by asking : In what does our national life 
consist? In the efforts of past generations to 
preserve our race. In spite of everything we are 
here, and your frenetic efforts to destroy us only 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 153 

afford conclusive proof of our strength and our 
existence. You tell us that wie have no middle 
class, and that we have no aristocracy. Our 
middle class is developing, and as regards an 
aristocracy we have no need of it. 

Within the comf)ass of a few years the Germans 
have witnessed the developfraent of a vigorous, 
healthy, and independent Czech middle class. A 
little later the same phenomenon appeared among 
the Slovenes. 

The argument that only such nations as are 
** complete " may aspire to the same rights as 
those accorded to the older nations comes into 
collision with the cold logic of facts when applied 
to the Jugoslavs. Do the Serbs possess an ancient 
middle class or an aristocracy ? Or are the 
generals of the Serbian armies and Serbian diplo- 
mats not the sons of peasants ? And yet there is 
nobody who would cast a doubt on the fact that 
the Serbian nation can fairly compare with the 
great nations of history. 

To return to the rival claims of Jugoslavs and 
Italians in the terre irredente, there is one question 
which must be discussed before all others. Are 
the Italians of the Illyrian Littoral a complete 
nation according to German and Italian definition 
of the term? Certainly the Italians cannot claim 
to possess an aristocracy in the Littoral, because 
the aristocracy there is exclusively German. 
According to the admission of a writer with 



164 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

chauvinist views^ the Italians can boast of an 
upper middle class, but both trade and capital on 
a large scale in Trieste have always been in the 
hands of a cosniopolitan, non -Italian element. 
The leading families^ a few of whom are of ItaUan 
origin, are mistrlcantl — i.e. tenacious partisans 
of the Austrian Empire, strongly opposed to Italian 
nationalism. 

If we, then, examine the position of affairs before 
the European War, we shall find that capital was 
controlled mainly either by foreigners or by Jugo- 
slavs. There was not one great Italian bank in 
Trieste. The wealthy bourgeoisie there is a 
mixture of all races ; it is not at all purely Italian. 
The Italian stratum is the lower middle class, the 
small tradespeople, and its growing preponderance 
is due to the constitutional movement. It is a 
curious fact that this lower middle class has only 
very tardily and recently emancipated itself from 
the Austrian element. 

The Italians realized the danger that was in- 
volved in the creation of a Jugoslav middle class. 
The agricultural masses and the working classes! are 
Slav. If they were supported by an enlightened 
Jugoslav middle class, the Italian cause would be 
doomed. The racial struggle became fierce as 
soon as the Jugoslav middle class began to take 
root in Trieste. As a matter of fact, it is of 
recent growth ; it has been reproached with being 
non -indigenous. But nevertheless Trieste will sink 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 155 

into insignificance if the town is cut off from the 
Slav hinterland. One would deprive Trieste of a 
primary condition of progress by obstructing the 
influx of the new and iadustrious element which 
derives its strength from the wholesome breath of 
the soil and the small hamlets and villages of the 
Jugoslav lands. 

2. The Past. 

It is the fate of history to be exploited by 
politics. Unfortimately, historic facts are used 
to furnish arguments for the exigencies of political 
life. As a matter of fact, if the argument of 
history is to be put forward in politics, it is 
necessary to subject it to very careful scrutiny 
indeed. 

It may be objected that the rationalism of the 
great Revolution has for ever destroyed the im- 
portance of historic facts for present-day politics. 
On the other hand, it is intelligible that in coun- 
tries where the Constitution has preserved the con- 
tinuity of historic claims, the argument of history 
should still be taken into account. But in a 
country like Italy, founded on the principle of the 
sovereign rights of nationality and constituted by 

! the destruction of the historic claims of other 
States, the argument of history appears as an 
anachronism. 

We do not deny that the Littoral was once under 

i the Roman rule. Let us point out, e.g., that it 



156 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

is also in virtue of an historic claim that Hungary 
aspires to the possession of Serbia and Bulgaria, 
which were in the Middle Ages vassal States of the 
Crown of St. Stephen. 

Moreover, it is open to question whether the 
Italians of the Littoral are descendants of the 
Romans. As a matter of fact, it is extremely 
difficult to determine the different races which 
constitute the Italian nation of to-day. There is 
little of the Roman blood left to-day, even in the 
central province. What can we say of the Italians 
of the Littoral whose names, which are often Slav, 
certainly do not point to a Roman descent ? All 
these questions of race must be regarded with' 
infinite caution. 

After the Romans, the Littoral passed under the 
domination of the German feudal system. It is 
true, however, that the Italians might put forward 
a historic claim to Trieste and part of Istria, 
because these two provinces were at one time 
dependencies of the Republic of Venice. But it 
must be remembered that the Venetian domination 
over Trieste was merely temporary ; ever since 
1382 the fate of Trieste h^s been linked with 
that of Austria. Venice and Trieste were always 
rival cities ; no political and economic union has 
ever existed between them. Concerning this 
Angelo Vivante remarks most truthfully in his 
" Irredentismo Adriatico " : " The town has a 
foe in front, in the flank, and in the rear ; it ii 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 157 

obliged for dear life to desire the death of 
Venice.'* 

The Venetian rule in Istria and Dalmatia was 
mere colonial exploitation in its cruellest form. 
Both coimtries were not treated like the other 
possessions of the Most Serene Republic in Italy, 
but as colonies altogether foreign to the sovereign 
State. The Slav peasant was systematically ex- 
ploited in virtue of a regimen which scarcely 
differed from the Spanish system of colonization. 
There Was neither pity nor ecomomic common sense. 
The past of the eastern part of Istria was alto- 
gether different. The country formed part of the 
Holy Roman Empire, and German feudalism took 
deep root there. 

It was the Holy Empire which played by far 

the most important part in the history of the 

Illyrian Littoral, right upi to the nineteenth century. 

As a matter of fact, the Empire was the House 

of Habsburg. To these southern countries the 

Empire was an abstract idea, whereas Austria 

■was a tangible fact. Styria, Carinthia, and Car- 

: niola shared the fate of the Littoral. They were 

! governed by the same laws, they were under the 

same administration, the same political principles 

and similar social conditions prevailed, brought 

about by the common geographical position of the 

entire group of provinces. 

Thus it is clear that the historic claim based on 
tthe Roman occupation is confronted by a rival 



158 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of more recent growth — i.e. tWe German Empire 
of the Middle Ages. Decidedly the historical 
argument is a two-edged weapon. 

Gorica-Gradiska also passed under the sway 
of German feudalism. The Counts of Gorica were 
German, and they sought to Germanize the country 
by encouraging German colonists and introducing 
German laws and customs. 

If, therefore, we are to accept the standpoint 
of the historic claim, it would be Germany, as 
legitimate heir of the Holy Empire, who would 
be entitled to enforce her claim', rather than Italy. 

It is not so easy to decide whether Trieste was 
also incorporated in the Holy Empire, and, indeed, 
this is a matter distinctly open to discussion. In 
this connection it is interesting that in 1848 
Trieste elected deputies for the Frankfort Parlia- 
ment — ^in other words, for the Parliament of the 
German Empire. 

An insistence on the historic claim' must lead 
us to conclusions which are not in the least 
gratifying to the Italian point of view. 

Besides this, not only Germany but France also 
might prefer, from the point of view of historic 
right, a claim to the Littoral. The French occu- 
pation forms a chapter in the Napoleonic epic. 
This French occupation of the unredeemed coun- 
tries forms one of the most important, interesting, 
and far-reaching periods of their history, and opens 
an entirely new vista in the fate of these countries, 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 159 

The French rule, lasting from 1809 to 18 13, 
exercised a very special influence over the Littoral. 
The former attempts at centralization w^ere 
logically continued. The Illyrian provinces were 
transformed into a kingdom of Illyria. The Lit- 
toral was united with Carniola and Carinthia. Up 
to 1848 the Littoral, Carniola, and Carinthia were 
all under the same administration. It is an in- 
dubitable fact that the separate administration of 
to-day was created in order to weaken the Slav 
movement in these provinces. 

Under the pernicious rule of the German Liberal 
Party the Slovenes, the westernmost of the Jugo- 
slavs, were parcelled out in four provinces, and 
their political hfe was disastrously decentralized 
in six Diets. 

All these facts prove that the decentralization 
which to-day prevails in the provinces of Austria 
proper is not in keeping with the historic de- 
velopment of the country, but was arbitrarily 
I created in order to destroy the Slovene political 
I movement. 

j The greatest obstacle to the progress of the 
i Jugoslavs in the Littoral lay, not in Austria's in- 
,temal but in her external policy. The Triple 
Alliance was a most baneful event for the Jugo- 
slavs of the Littoral. In Crispi's Memoirs one 
i finds many instances which prove the efforts made 
I by both Italy and Germany to compel Austria 
to adopt a pro -Italian policy in the Littoral. 



160 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Austria's political weakness, sure sign of deca- 
dence, tolerated this shiameful interference. The 
Austrian Government favoured the Italians every- 
where ; the schools, local government, the Church, 
political life — all were Italianized. 

Naturally, a policy of this type was fairly cal- 
culated to foment the most bitter strife between 
the Jugoslavs and Italians in the Littoral. It was 
exasperating for the Jugoslavs to find themselves 
the victims of a hopelessly false foreign policy, 
which did not aim at furtheringi the progress of 
the nationalities, but exclusively at establishing 
the overpoweringi hegiemony of the Magyars and 
Germans and the destruction of the Jugoslavs. 

But the Triple Alliance w;as not a permanent 
institution, and when it fell into abeyance, its 
influence on Austria's internal policy in the Lit- 
toral ceased. This change took place at the 
beginning of this century : the Government ceased 
to favour the Italian element, and sought to 
inaugurate a policy which, although it scarcely 
yet corresponded to the new social force and 
intelligence of the Jugoslav masses, at least was 
not absolutely hostile to them. 

The Government was still far removed from 
the standpoint of full national equality and true 
justice, and the regime of the *' Red Prince " 
Hohenlohe, the man so detested by the Italians, 
did not mean that the country was administered in 
accordance with the wishes of the majority of its 



J 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 161 

inhabitants, but merely that his system permitted 
the free developiment of the Slav social forces. 

One may read in every Italian book dealing 
with Nationalist conditions in the " unredeemed 
provinces " that the development of the Jugoslavs 
was evoked and furthered by the Government. 
But it was not the Government, but a perfectly 
natural, social, and economic evolution which 
caused this progress. The social purblindness 
with regard to this subject in even the best Italian 
authors is exceedingly interesting. 

Of course the evolution of the Jugoslavs in 
the Littoral is making itself felt ; they form the 
majority of the population, and we live in an age 
where, even in Austria, the masses command 
respect. The Slavization of Trieste is due to 
the economic development of the whole of 
Southern Austria, and principally to the new 
Alpine railway by which Trieste is more closely 
united with its hinterland than it was in time 
past. Moreover, numerous Jugoslav banking 
institutions have within recent years become almost 
the predominant factors in the economic life of 
I Trieste As the Italian intranslgeant writer Gayda 
i puts it in his book ** LTtalia d'Oltre Confine,*' 
j " There are branches of German and Slav banks, 
but not one exclusively Italian bank of any 
importance." 

Besides these economic reasons, there are 
certain ethical reasons. The Jugoslavs are at 

11 



162 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

this moment a nation filled with all the pride 
of race peculiar to young" and healthy peoples. 
Naturally, among the Slovenes, the vanguard of 
the Jugoslavs, this feeling of rising' strength is 
bound to create a disposition to struggle yet more 
fiercely against the foes of centuries. The Jugo- 
slav renascence simultaneously awakened a strong 
manifestation of public opinion and a very strong 
and vital intellectual movement. This movement 
equalized the Italian and Jugoslav intellectual 
forces. 

In spite of everything, however, the Italians 
reiterate that all is due to the Government. The 
truth is that the Jugoslavs are the children of 
their own labours, and that they have progressed, 
not by the support but contrary to the will of 
the State. 

With regard to Trieste, Austria was in a diffi- 
cult position. To the detested Red Prince, 
Governor of Trieste, it was a fact that the Italians 
of Trieste desired a union with Italy. Former 
governors had sought to win the regard of the 
Italians by the simple expedient of oppressing the 
Jugoslavs, who formed the majority of the popu- 
lation. During the time of the Triple Alliance, 
Austria's foreign policy was the complement of 
her Anti-Slav home policy. Both Germans and 
Magyars with naive enthusiasm supported a pro- 
Italian policy, which was clearly doomed to 
crushing defeat. While Crispi ruled Italy, it was 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 163 

an easy matter for him and Bismarck to force 
Austria -Hungary to favour tbe Italians and oppress 
the Jugoslavs. In all the larger towns, Italian 
influence was stronger than Jugoslav in conse- 
quence of an unfair and undemocratic electoral 
law. An absurd and reactionary Constitution 
of the Provincial Diets favoured the political 
oppression of the majority of the population. 
The Italians were backed by a Great Power ; the 
Jugoslavs had no one to support them. 

The Austrian Government has achieved very 
little in the Littoral ; only in one matter has it 
been completely successful, to wit, in utterly 
undermining the attachment of the Jugoslavs to 
the Dynasty. When the Empress Elizabeth was 
assassinated in Geneva by an Italian, riots against 
the Italians broke out in the Littoral. The Slav 
masses, which were then still animated by a warm 
regard for the Dynasty, saw in their own oppressors 
the foes of the Royal House as well. Innocent 
demonstrations against the Italians were punished 
with cruelly severe terms of imprisonment, and 
the Slovene peasant had to gio to jail for 
his patriotism'. Even the cry of ** Long live 
Austria ! " was forbidden and made punishable in 
the interests of a pro -Italian foreign policy. 

It is the instinct of self-preservation which com- 
pels the majority of the population in the Littoral, 
i.e. the Jugoslavs, to fear an annexation by Italy, 
which w^ould mean national death to the Jugoslavs 



164 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of that country. For this reason the Jugoslav 
policy was opposed to that of Italia irredenta. But 
the Austrian system of exasperating police prose- 
cution arid persecution was bitterly repugnant to 
Italians and all Slav parties alike. 

3. The Present Day. 

The social structure of the Littoral cannot be 
summed up in the simple phrase, that the towns 
are Italian arid the country Slav. Modern life, 
with its manifold means of communication, 
industry, and growing commerce, attracted ithe 
rural Slav element to the towns, where always 
was an indigenous Slovene population. Surely 
the simplest method to check this tendency would 
have been simply to forbid the Slavs to settle 
in the towns ; but this would have been a too 
drastically, undemocratic interference with the 
right of the individual to move from one place 
to another to be practicable in all its crudeness. 

Trieste became a large cosmopolitan town, the 
Hamburg of the souths, a great commercial centre 
of economic evolution, the greatest port on the 
Adriatic, and within recent years it has increased 
out of all proportion by a perfectly natural pro- 
cess. By a second railway line, uniting it with'' 
Germany, Vienna, and Prag'ue, Trieste became) 
a cosmopolitan city. A city of such size and,' 
importance requires a great army of workers. 
The Jugoslav districts to the north of Trieste 



I 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 16S 

have a rural population which needs work. 
Trieste is close at hand and nothing is more 
natural than to go to Trieste to seek work. This 
migration of Jugoslav labour is an economic fact, 
a natural outcome of the economic growth and 
development of Trieste, and of course, as a result 
of this economic evolution, the Slav element in 
the city increased. The Italians loffer a more 
ingenious explanation of the increase of the Slav 
population in Trieste. They declare that it is 
the Government which imports Slav labour. This 
is wrong. The Government has power to make 
war and to conclude peace, but the regulation 
of demand and supply in the labour market is 
a matter of economic evolution. Only in one 
branch of industry native labour has been defi- 
nitely preferred to Italian. Formerly workmen 
from the kingidom of Italy were employed in 
the naval dockyards. 

Even English writers have questioned the fact 
that Trieste requires the Jugoslav hinterland for 
its economic evolution. But these doubters 
should remember that for centuries Trieste has 
been in constant communication with its hinter- 
land, that it always traded with the countries 
lying to the north, and that it was always in 
competition with Venice. One cannot lay too 
much stress upon the fact that Napoleon I 
assigned Trieste to the Illyrian provinces. 

Any one acquainted with the historic develop- 



166 A BULWAI^K ACJAINSl? GERMANt' 

ment of Gorica will not marvel at the fact that 
the German element has always been very strong 
there. Before the Habsburgs acquired the county 
it was ruled by the Counts of Gorica, who 
were of German-Tyrolean descent, and brought 
German feudal law, German customs, and German 
colonists into the country. Until quite recently 
an old aristocracy of German landowners still 
existed there, which mixed with the local Italian 
aristocracy until both were merged in the Austrian 
element. Nor was the Italian middle class ever 
very strong in Gorica. 

The Slovenes developed a native Slovene 
middle class in Gorica, and the Italian contention 
that all prosperity, civilization, and education in 
the Littoral are Italian had long lost all meaning 
in Gorica. 

As Gorica is completely surrounded by Slovene 
territory, and the rural population is constantly 
gravitating towards the towns, it is not in the 
least surprising that Gorica is becoming more 
of a Slovene town from year to year. The citizen 
is dependent upon the dweller in the country, 
who is his best client, and the man from the 
country is likely to be guided by Nationalist 
considerations in the choice of the merchant with 
whom he deals, and to purchase for preference 
from his own countrymen ; and thus a new native 
urban element grows up in pluro-lingual towns. 

In Istria the position is a peculiar one. Here 



SLOVENES ANt) ITALIANS 16t 

the Italian urban element is strongest on the 
west coast, and the towns on the west have still 
to a great extent presented an Italian character. 
The social stratum of wealthy landowners, about 
one hundred families all told, is very thin. 
These five score Italian landowners of the better 
class exercise a privileged vote for the Diet, in 
virtue of which they send five Italian delegates 
to the Istrian Diet. These few families form 
the true mainstay of the Italian element in Istria. 
But they stand in sharp opposition to the Slav 
rural population. Usury is practised in its worst 
form by the Italian '* signori " who have taught 
the Slovene peasant that his national and his 
economic interests go hand in hand. The Istrian 
urban lower middle class is not very capable 
of holding its own. This is because the 
inhabitant of the Istrian coast towns is also a 
farmer, i.e. he also cultivates vineyards and corn- 
fields outside the town. But an economically, 
hybrid position of this kind is incompatible with 
the requirements of the times, and as a result, 
the land on the west coast is passing" more and 
more into the hands of the persevering and 
frugal Jugoslav peasant. 

There is something very true and significant 
in the dictum that the Italian element represents 
the buttons on the Slav coat. The great mass 
of the rural population is Slav. These Slav 
masses were neglected, not only under the 



168 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Venetians but even more so under the political 
tyranny of the *' signori." The Slavs were given 
n^ schools. 

It was a favourite political method of the 
Istrian Italians to contend that there were no 
less than eleven different kinds of Slavs in Istria, 
who had nothing in common with each other. 
That different dialects are spoken in one and the 
same country is a thing not unknown elsewhere, 
and least of all in Italy, and yet no one would 
venture to deny that all Italians belong to the 
same nation. The Venetian has considerablle 
difficulty in understanding the Piedmontese, far 
more than the Slav peasant from Istria finds in 
understanding the Jugoslavs of Dalmatia or 
Bosnia. One proof of the speaking the purest 
Serbian language character of this argument of 
the eleven Slav nations may be found in the fact 
that it gradually disappeared, and it was finally 
admitted that the Istrian peasants are simply 
Jugoslavs . 

During a long lapse of time the Austrian 
Government devoted itself to Italianizing the 
Littoral. The delegate Spincic was justified 
when in 1894 he indignantly exclaimed in the 
Reichsrat : "In those cays [1848] Istria was still 
designated a Sliav land, and only to the Austrian 
Governments of more recent date are due the 
credit, and the honour that in consequence of 
their activity, in all branches of the administra- 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS i6D 

tion, whole towns, villages, yea, wlxole districts 
have become Italian ! " 

Blind and effete as ever, the Austrian Govern- 
ment indiscriminately echoed the phrases concern- 
ing' Italian culture and superiority, without ever 
approaching the nucleus of the problem. 

The nineties of the last century, were especially 
stormy in these southern lands. In those years 
Slavs and Italians came virtually into collision in 
a hard, vehement conflict, which was waged on 
both sides with Southern heat and temperament. 
The destruction of vines and olive-trees became a 
favourite weapon of the Italian political terror. 
The debates in the Reichsrat between 1894 and 
1897 tell many a tale of this kind. 

The leaders of the Italians of the Littoral never 
understood true democracy. The Italian parties 
were reared on pseudo-Liberal principles ; all 
power really reposed in the hands of a small 
clique, which exploited the Slav peasant both 
politically and economically. The fight against 
the Jugoslav peasant was at the same time a 
fight against democracy. 

The question of Italy's natural boundaries 
forms an interesting ch^^pter in itself. One of 
tlje arguments heard mosi frequently is that Italy 
requires Gorica, Istria, and Trieste, because these 
territories constitute Italy's natural strategic 
boundary. Every State desires to possess strategic 
boundaries, not only Italy but also Raly's 



i?o A BULWARii Against GE&MANt 

neighbours. In fact, Italy's one-sided claim to 
a strategic boundary cannot fail to provoke an 
equal desire in her neighbours. 

Italian g'eographers have not yet decided 
among themselves whether to adopt the line of 
the Julian Alps as the boundary created by Nature. 
It is more a poetic aspiration than a fact of 
political geography, that the Italian frontier 
passes along the Carnian and Julian Alps from 
Trbiz (Tarvis) down to the Gulf of Quarnero. 
The fact is that the Julian Alps are broken up 
by wide valleys and that this ring of mountains 
is by, no means a connected chain. The whole 
length of the range is 260 km., and only 80 km., 
from the Predil to the Idrica, form an uninter- 
rupted Alpine range. The Baca and Idrica 
valleys are a couple of deep and wide expanses 
which completely break the continuity of the 
Julian Alps. The district between the Baca 
valley and the Vipava valley is crossed by a 
central range possessing .ino sharply defined 
profile at all. And who would venture to 
assert that the plateau pi the Carso is at all 
suitable for a strong demarcation of the Italian 
frontier? The phrase concerning Italy's ** natural 
boundaries " is a political catchword of the usual 
type, without any real justification. 

That Nature has indicated Italy's true 
confines is another patriotic sentence. The 
climate of Vipava and Gorica is more meridional 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 17l 

than that of Carniola ; the vegetation is richer, 
but still that does not prove that " these 
districts belong' to Italy." The ** eternally blue 
sky of Italy " broods equally over Dalmatia, 
Hercegovina, and many other countries. 

It would be a mistake to conclude that the 
Jugoslavs of the Illyrian Littoral dislike Italy and 
the Italians. On the contrary, they are greatly 
in sympathy with Italy's democratic life, her 
great past, and her present civilization. The 
Jugoslavs of Dalmatia, who are the most advanced 
among the Jugoslavs from the point of view of 
the national problems of the race, like Latin 
spirit ; thus we do not find perpetual antagonism 
of the souls of two nations, and two opposing 
civilizations at war in the hearts of the Jugoslavs 
of Dalmatia, but rather an ardent desire for 
harmonious concord. But between Germans and 
Jugoslavs a similar understanding would be 
impossible. 

Jugoslav sympathy with Italian civilization was 
adversely affected by a particular obstacle created 
by the political conflict between Jugoslavs and 
Italians in the Littoral. Any, one writing a 
sociological history of Austria would have to 
make mention of the Slav renegade as a type. 
This type has flourished greatly among the 
dominant and privileged races, such as the 
Germans, Poles, Magyars, and Italians. 

A renegade is always the bitterest enemy of 



172 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

his compatriots of yesterday, and be acts as a 
kind of a^ent- provocateur among^ countrymen pf 
his adoption. The renegade is the product of 
social egotism, and also of social corruption. It 
is not too much to assert that Nationalist struggles 
would lose much of their bitterness if this 
extremist element could be eliminated. In our 
case, it is safe to say that the relations between 
Italians and Jugoslavs would become more natural 
at once but for the renegade element in whose 
interest it is to destroy the possibility of national 
agreement . 

There is a strong German colony in the 
lUyrian Littoral. Unfortunately, it cannot be 
denied that the Italians were guilty of allying 
themselves with the Germans, of supporting them 
in the times of political and administrative 
elections. They themselves introduced the enemy 
into the country. It was purblind of the Italians 
of the coast-land to favour Pan-Germanism in 
the Adriatic region ; and it is interesting! to note 
that at the present moment Italy herself is 
enthusiastically and with well-grounded argu- 
ments proclaiming the dangers of Pan- Germanism 
for Italy. 

Obviously, reconciliation with an adversary who 
called the common enemy into the country was 
most unlikely. The action of the Italians was 
inspired solely by a wish to weaken the Jugoslavs. 
A wise poHcy would have been one diametrically 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 173 

opposed to this. The Italians ought to have 
eliminated the Germans and sought to arrive at 
an understanding with the indigenous population, 
with whom they were (Obliged to live side by 
side. The first step on the part of the Italians 
towards establishing such an understanding would 
have to be the adoption of a clearly, anti-German 
attitude. 

As for the Jugoslavs, they are forced to declare 
that it is themselves who are in the majority 
in these terre irredettie. Yet they recognize 
the national rights of the Italians in a spirit of 
liberalism and justice. 

The Jugoslavs have never thought of imposing 
the prerogative of the majority, which has the 
sanction of the democratic institutions of the day, 
but have shown themselves willing to respect the 
Italian minority and guaranteeing it full and free 
development . 

They are not demanding a position of 
supremacy over the other nation, but an equitable 
situation based on full autonomy for either nation. 

The Italians will find the Jugoslavs imbued 
with a spirit of conciliation, a strong desire and 
the frank and generous intention of achieving 
the goal which is so important for them, viz. 
the good understanding between Italians and 
Jugoslavs . 

This understanding would also be of paramount 
importance for Italy's Balkan policy. 



174 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

A reconciliation with the Jugoslavs of the 
lUyrian Littoral is a primary condition for any 
Balkan policy on the part of Italy. Failing this, 
any Italo-Balkanic alliance would merely lead to 
a repetition of the Austrian checkmate. Austria 
failed in her penetration of the Balkans because 
of the well -deserved dislike she evoked by her 
dualist policy, because of the Magyar hegemony 
and because of her oppression of the Jugoslavs. 
The Triple Alliance was first endangered and 
subsequently buried by the Nationalist questions 
which divided Austria- Hungary and Italy. 

The Jugoslavs see more clearly than the Italians 
what the situation of to-morrow is likely to be, 
more especially in the ** unredeemed countries," 
concerning which the Italians"* cannot discard cer- 
tain obsolete conceptions founded on the ideas 
of a bygone day. 

The intellectual adaptability of the Jugoslavs 
is not a proof of weakness but of strength, which 
is in itself the result of an absence of false and 
ingrained traditions, and of a social system which 
is imbued with an invincible faith in the ideas 
of to-day and to-morrow. 

As far back as 1848 Cavour said of the 
Jugoslavs : *' The Slav race, energetic, numerous, 
oppressed for several centuries, desires to eman- 
cipate itself completely. ... Its cause is just 
and noble . . . that is why it is destined to 
triumph in a distant future." 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 175 

It seems as if the prophecy of th^ creator of 
the Italy of to-day were now to be fulfilled. Is 
it likely that one of the greatest events in history 
will at last solve the Jugoslav question, and, by 
giving it national independence, put an end to 
the tragic martyrdom of a race that has hitherto 
been torn apart and condemned to misery, but 
always full of life and energy? 

This moment compels Italy to be guided by 
infinite prudence in the choice of her attitude. 

No one can deny the great importance of the 
Illyrian Littoral for the Jug'oslavs. After all, they 
are at home there. One must know the true 
national resources of the Jug'oslavs to be con- 
vinced that this western territory of theirs is the 
true nursery of all that is most important for the 
life of the Slovene nationality. Culture and 
political life are well advanced there in every 
respect. Statistics show that the number of 
illiterates is smaller there than in any other Jugo- 
slav country. It is also worth while to note 
that the number of illiterates is proportionately 
far greater in the Italian section of the littoral 
than in the Jugoslav section. The figures for 
19 1 o are : Environs of Gorica (Slovenes), 14' 64 
per cent, illiterates; Tolmin (Slovenes), 15-12 
per cent. ; Sezana (Slovenes), 14" 19 per cent. ; 
Gradisca (Italians), 17-97 per cent. ; Monfalcone 
(Italians), 22-10 per cent. 

Trieste is the gate by which the Jugoslavs 



176 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

stand in communication with West Europe. 
The Italians took up a wrong standpoint iwith 
regard to this matter. They demanded Italy's 
intervention in the war on the plea that the 
supreme moment had come in which to make 
sure that this territory should not be lost to 
them. The formula ** too late '* would expose 
the absence of true national strength, it would 
be a confession of defeat. A nation whose 
existence is not artificially bolstered up ought 
to be able to survive the greatest dangers. It 
ought to be able to do so without a time limit. 

Let us in a few words define the problem' of 
Trieste and the Illyrian Littoral. The majority, of 
the population is Jugoslav. By having organized 
the masses and developed an urban middle class, 
they have become an important factor in the 
financial and economic life of Trieste. Contrari- 
wise, the Italians are basing their claims on his- 
toric arguments which to-day are anachronisms. 
Their Italian Nationalist petite bourgeoisie is in 
conflict with the Slav labour element, and even 
with the Italian labour element, which is Socialist 
and Internationalist in Trieste and Clerical and 
Austrian in Gorica-Gradisca. Moreover, that 
bourgeoisie lacks a strong organization and 
financial support, which is a fatal drawback in a 
place which is, like Trieste, above all things a 
commercial centre. 

All historic claims, the brilliant phrases of a 



I 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS I7f 

bygone age, all the Latin historical phraseology, 
should be abandoned. 

The unworthy prejudices which have warped the 
Italian spirit must go, and they must realize and 
admit that in the Illyrian Littoral, including Trieste, 
Gorica, and Pola, the Jugoslavs are in every way 
their equal. But one thing is certain. Certain 
prejudices will have to be given up, and a certain 
conception of national justice accepted. 

The principle of protection for national 
minorities, which obtains in Austrian Moravia, is 
still fairly new to the British public. And yet- 
whatever the ultimate fate of the Illyrian Littoral 
—it must be made a sine qua non that national 
interests, no matter whether Slovene or Italian, 
are duly and legally protected. A nationality 
law of this kind should enjoy international pro- 
tection. The main outlines ought to be as 
follows. All members of a given nationality form 
the native community, which is organized as a 
juristic body and has absolutely autonomous con- 
trol over certain branches of the administration, 
principally the school system. Every citizen, 
whether belonging to the Jugoslav or to the 
Italian nationality, must make a statement con- 
cerning his nationality and be registered in the 
records of his particular nationality, whose legal 
organization is based on these records. In order 
to obviate the possibility that the minority should 
be taken advantage of in the administration of 

12 



in A feULWARK AGAINST GERMAN^ 

such spheres as come under the joint control of 
both nationalities, the law of proportionate voting 
should be introduced. 

A sane nationalism, founded on the facts of 
the present day, could reconcile Jugoslavs and 
Italians. The old contempt and the old race- 
hatred must be laid aside. The living National 
forces, the actual situation of to-day, must be the 
starting-point, and not historical quibbles ; not 
supremacy, but equality founded upon the mutual 
recognition of reciprocal rights. 

If Italian Imperialism were to clash with Jugo- 
slav aspirations, the conflict would be fraught with 
considerable danger. 

By refusing to recognize Jugoslav Nationalism 
and repeating the outworn formulas of another 
age the Italians can only damage themselves. It 
is obviously difficult to establish an understanding 
between an old nationality, steeped in tradi- 
tionalism, and a new one. 

The war of to-day partakes of both social and 
political ideahsm. Italy's best men behold in it 
the great conflict between the ideas of yesterday 
and social progress ; they look upon Germanism 
as representing social and political reaction. Con- 
sequently they will have to beware of imitating 
Prussian Imperialism. And this Imperialism aimed 
at strangling on principle, at crushing every move- 
ment towards national autonomy and national 
justice. This Imperialism has proved itself the 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 179 

negation of civilization, the negation of true social 
progress. The great obstacle in the path of 
Prussian Imperialism was the Slavism of the Jugo- 
slavs which barred all direct access to the East. 

The Austrian Government was the blind instru- 
ment of Pan -Germanism. By corruption, by brute 
force and German money, they sought to Ger- 
manize the Slovenes. In Croatia, Hungary was the 
cruel executor of Germany's will. The abrogation 
of Croatia's constitutional rights, her economic 
misery, incarcerations, the destruction of political 
liberty — these were the tender mercies of the 
Hungarian policy. Last, but not least, Serbia was 
the most energetic and the most obstinate enemy 
of Pan -Germanism. 

German action was the same in each country, 
but the political effects differed. But how much 
suffering, how many vexations, what privations we 
had to endure in order to withstand the German 
Drang! The whole world ought henceforth to 
benefit by the Jugoslav tenacity. 

All those who are to-day so bitterly condemning 
the methods of this extraordinary manifestation of 
the worship of force ought to be consistent with 
regard to places where a new Imperialism is 
threatening to develop. And we fear that Italy is 
on the way to yield to such a movement ; but this 
would be a betrayal of the most precious ideals 
which are to-day arrayed against Imperialist 
Germany. 



180 A BULWARK ACiAINST GEItMAN* 

4. The Deal with Italy. Voices of British 
AND French Publicists. 

In the foregoing chapters we have set forth the 
facts, social, economic, and political, whereby the 
Jugoslav problem in the Littoral is fully eluci- 
dated. Starting from the principle that true, good 
policy is inseparable from a thorough knowledge 
of facts, the diplomatic negotiations preceding the 
Italian intervention have somewhat surprised us. 
The dynastic, strategic, and imperialistic con- 
siderations have been the decisive factors. The 
will of the nation inhabiting the territory whose 
cession is being contemplated — ^the Principle of 
Nationality — is not being taken into account. We 
feel as if we were turned back into an age when 
kings and princes shared, pawned, gave away and 
dowered their daughters with their lands. When 
the World -War is brought to a conclusion Euro- 
pean democracy will not fail to subject the diplo- 
matic history of the Great War to a searching 
criticism. '1 

Nobody can deny the justice of Italy's title to 
the Trentino. On the ground of the principle of 
nationality, Italy had a right to demand the Tren- 
tino from Austria -Hungary. The objections raised 
by Austro -Hungarian diplomacy are quite peculiar. 
The question as to what should be done in future 
with regard to the title of " Count of the Tyrol," 
which is one of the titles borne by the Emperor of 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 181 

Austria -Hungary, is vastly more import ant in the 
eyes of a Viennese diplomat than that of the 
national affinity of the Trentino. After all, in the 
eyes of the Viennese courtiers, the principle of 
nationality is no better than red revolution, a 
horrible product of modern times. 

It was no less a person than Mazzini who, in his 
book " The Duties of Man," spoke thus to his 
countrymen : " Take a map of Europe and place 
one point of a pair of compasses in the north of 
Italy or Parma, point the other to the mouth of the 
Var and describe a semicircle with it in the direc- 
tion of the Alps. This point, which will fall, when 
the semicircle is completed, upon the mouth of the 
Isonzo, will have marked the frontier which God 
has given you. As far as this frontier your lan- 
guage is spoken ; beyond this you have no rights." 
It is the Soca (Isonzo) line, therefore, which Maz- 
zini claims as the national political frontier of Italy. 

The demands of modern Italy are far in excess 
of the demands of her creator. On April 8th, 
Baron Sonnino formulated Italy's demands from 
Austria -Hungary as follows : Cession of almost 
the entire province of Gorica-Gradiska, besides the 
Trentino. The new political boundary was to be 
drawn from the Rombonne, eastward of Bovec, 
down the Soca (Isonzo) as far as Tolmin, then via 
Cepovan east of Gorica, across the Kras at Komen, 
until it reached the sea between Monfalcone and 
Trieste in the neighbourhood of Nabrezina. 



182 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Trieste, with Nabrezina, Koper, and Pirano, was to 
form an independent, sovereign State. The islands 
of Hvar, Vis, Korculja, Lasttovo, Pusac, Pelagruza, 
and Mert were to be ceded to Italy. This was to 
be the deal with Austria. 

But at the same time Italy was also negotiating 
with Russia. But Russia was asked to promise far 
more than Austria in return for Italy's adherence. 
There was no longer any suggestion of a free 
State of Trieste. The river Rasa in Istria was to 
mark, the boundary between Italy and the future 
Croatia. Part of Carniola was to fall to Croatia's 
share. That meant, that Russian diplomacy was 
to give the other part of the heart of Slovene terri- 
tory to Italy. The other Slovene lands are not 
even mentioned in these Russian proposals to Italy. 
As regards the Dalmatian Isles, Russian diplomacy 
endeavoured to arrive at a compromise between 
the principle of nationality and the Italian General 
Staff. 

Towards the Triple Entente Italy advanced yet 
further claim's, which a Frenchman, Charles Vellay, 
in his " La Question de I'Adriatique," summarized 
in the following words : '* Italy categorically; — one 
might say, brutally — expressed a desire, which was 
not embarrassed by any considerations of justice or 
reason, and she plainly avowed her aim, viz. the 
destruction of all rivalry by sea, absolute ascen- 
dancy." I have purposely quoted the words of 
this distinguished Frenchman. Bare facts speak 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 183 

loudly enough. The future C r oat o -Italian frontier 
was to run south of Fiume. In other words, Fiume 
was to become Italian territory. The coast, from 
the mouth of the Zermanja to that of the Narenta, 
was to be handed over to Italy — five hundred kilo- 
metres of one of the most beautiful coast -lands in 
the world ! All the Dalmatian Isles were to 
belong to Italy. 

The Italian programme is neither modest nor 
idealistic. And yet there are enthusiasts who 
stiU dream of the principle of nationality, the 
deliverance of nations, and a durable peace ! 

.We are often told that " the soup is never 
eaten as hot as it was cooked," as the Germans 
say. But even if Italy were to renounce her 
claim to Dalmatia, almost six hundred thousand 
Jugoslavs in Carniola and the Littoral would still 
be handed over to her. Even Italy's minimum 
programme, embracing only Trieste, Gorica- 
Gradiska, and Istria, would mean that the 
Slovenes would suffer a mortal blow from which 
they would never recover. 

In order to rightly elucidate the Jugoslav - 
Italian conflict, so far as Trieste and the rest 
of the Littoral are concerned, mjay I be permitted 
to quote the opinions of English and French 
publicists who have studied the problem? This 
method will absolve our contentions from the 
charge of bias. 

We will give precedence to the British writers. 



184 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

and then quote the French in their turn. As 
a matter of fact, the British are far less favourably, 
disposed towards the Slovenes than the French, 
among whom a display of " Latin sympathy " 
would have seemed more natural. 

Two influential British publicists — Sir Arthur 
Evans and Dr. Set on- Wat son — adjudge the Littoral 
to Italy without further ado. Sir Arthur Evans 
expressed his standpoint in an article in the 
Manchester Guardian on May 13, 1 9 1 5 • Dr. 
Seton -Watson, even in his more recent publicist 
writings, adhered to his views concerning Trieste, 
which he had already put forward in " War and 
Democracy." In this case we can only reply 
as follows to this admirable writer, who has 
already rendered such distinguished service to 
the Jugoslav cause. Since when has the principle 
of nationality been spoken of ? Only since our 
own age, in which the national country State has 
come to be recognized in contrast to the formier 
city State. A city State, founded on the principle 
of nationality, is an anomaly. Now, Trieste, 
situated in Jugoslav territory, is certainly a city, 
which might possibly be constituted a city State. 
But this city State could not exist independently 
from the surrounding Jugoslav territory. But 
if the principle of nationality js to be applied, 
it must at least be applied to the whole of the 
Littoral, seeing that the territory of Trieste is 
^ri integral part of the Littoral, But as soon 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 185 

as we consider the Littoral as a whole, it is 
clear that this territory, the majority of whose 
inhabitants are Jugoslavs, cannot be claimed by 
the Italians on the strength of the principle of 
nationality. Seton- Watson contends that the 
" extremists among the Jugoslavs " claim Trieste. 
As a matter of fact, in this question the 
Jugoslav Committee has the Jugoslav nation 
behind it to a man, and the programme of the 
committee is well known. Seton- Watson puts 
forward the same point of view in his pamphlet 
" The Balkans and the Adriatic." Yet he is 
obliged to admit that Trieste, detached from its 
Hinterland, would be economically doomed. It 
is a natural thing that economic factors are the 
conseqence of geographical and ethnological con- 
ditions. An economical anomaly is also bound to 
be a political and national anomaly. 

In his book " Nationality and the War," Arnold 
J. Toynbee devotes a whole chapter to Trieste, 
under the title '* Trieste and Italy." It is charac- 
teristic of this writer, who often displays a striking 
degree of acumen side by side with a certain 
lack of detail, that he deals with the political 
future of the Slovenes in the same chapter. He 
is not very well acquainted with the past and 
present of Slovene politics and national existence^ 
or with the part which the Slovenes are destined 
to play in the fate of the entire Jugoslav nation. 
But as regards Trieste, his judgrnent is perfectly 



186 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

sound. Toynbee never doubts but that Trieste 
would have no future before her as an Italian city. 
" Trieste has a great future before her, and it 
is very important for the prosperity of Europe 
to keep unbroken all her economic links." He 
says quite plainly, that Italy's political economy 
ought to gravitate towards the Mediterranean, 
and not towards the Adriatic, as it does not belong 
to the economic sphere of the Adriatic. This is 
the reason why Trieste must not be handed over 
to Italy. Italy must be compensated elsewhtere. 

Fayle, in his '* The Great jSettlement," also 
deals with the problem of Trieste. Fayle does 
not know exactly the strength of the Jugoslav 
element in Trieste, and yet he lays stress upon 
the fact that the social claims of the Jugoslavs, 
no less than the economic relations between 
Trieste and its hinterland, must be considered 
(p. 147). Fayle advocates the creation of an 
open port, and even suggests a '* purely self- 
governing " regime for Trieste. 

These are the most important voices from 
England. British political literature is never 
quite free from the insular touch. In order to 
get a complete picture we must turn to the French 
publicists. 

First and foremost, it is M. Ernest Denis, 
historian of the Sorbonne, who bravely enters 
the lists for the Jugoslavs. In his " La Grande 
Serbie " he says the following : " Certains 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 187 

publicistes Italiens reclament ainsi pour leur pays 
noil seulement Trieste, mais Rieka et meme la 
plus grande partie de la Dalmatie. Leur pro- 
gramme, s'il etait accept^ par leur nation, pr^pa- 
rerait h I'Europe les plus grands perils et a 
ritalie les plus lamentables deboires " (p. 315). 
('* Certain Italian publicists thus demand for their 
country, not only Trieste but Rieka, and even 
the greater portion of Dalmatia. Their pro- 
gramme, if it were to be accepted by their nation, 
would prepare the gravest perils for Europe and 
most lamentable mortifications for Italy.") \ 

The great danger of Italian Imperialism for 
Europe is energetically exposied in this sentence. 
With eloquent words Denis seeks to rouse the 
conscience of Italian democracy. " La Serbie, 
libre, intacte, entiere, est une garantie de paix ; 
la Serbie, mutil6e, injustement depouillde de son 
domaine legitime, frustr6e de prix naturel de ses 
efforts heroiques, est condamnee a une politique 
aventureuse de revanche." (" Serbia, free, intact, 
and complete, will be a guarantee of peace ; 
Serbia, mutilated, unjustly despoiled of her 
legitimate domain, debarred from the natural 
reward of her heroic efforts, will be condemned 
to an adventurous policy of revanche.*') Denis 
exhorts Italy to refrain from engaging in a 
Bismarckian policy. Germany is approaching" the 
abyss, and this in consequence of a mistaken 
policy of annexation, Denis has defended t^te 



188 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

existence of the Slovenes of the Littoral with 
cordial eloquence. Ancient wrong and wrong 
about to be coimmitted is always grievous, and the 
weighty words of the French historian are balm to 
the wounds from which the Slovenes are smarting. 
Modern political literature contains few books 
on statistical problems which are written in so 
sprightly and interesting a manner as Arthur 
Chervin's *' L'Autriche et la Hongrie de demain." 
Chervin, late president of the Parisian Statistical 
Society, follows Nicederle's lead, in dwelling on 
the extreme importance of the Slovenes, whose 
task it is to prevent Germany from stretching 
from the North Sea, from the Belt, through to the 
Adriatic. Chervin, too, devotes an interesting 
chapter to Trieste. On the strength of statistic 
facts, Chervin proves the error of speaking of 
the " italianita " (Italian character) of Trieste. 
Chervin has the happy inspiration to quote 
Sonnino, who said on one occasion that to annex 
Trieste would be to carry the principle of nation- 
ality too far. But we will let M. Chervin speak 
for himself : " Je pense done, tres sincerement, 
qu'il serait preferable pour les interets Italiens 
de ne pas disputer Trieste aux Slaves du Sud, 
et que son internationalization serait une solution 
6\6gante, donnant pleine satisfaction a tout les 
interets en jeu." ("I therefore think, most 
sincerely, that it would be more advantageous 
to Italian interests not to contest the possession 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS iS9 

of Trieste with the Jugoslavs, and that her inter- 
nationaUzation would be an admirable isolution, 
giving full satisfaction to all interests at stake.") 

The warm, cordial words of Chervin on behalf 
of the Slovenes remind us of the fact that it is 
to France that the Slovenes owe their first 
experience of the blessings of a well-ordered 
modern administration, and that the splendid 
administrators of the Illyrian provinces were true 
sons of France. Chervin, like Denis, earnestly 
warns the Italians of the dangers which an unjust 
peace will bring in its train. 

It is Charles Vellay who, in his book ** La 
Question de 1' Adriatique, " most fully discusses 
Italo- Jugoslav relations . What a contrast between 
Vellay and those Italian publicists who accuse 
the Austrian Government of slavicizing Trieste ! 
Vellay 's point of view is altogether different. 
The fate of Trieste lies in the " impassibilite 
inebranlable, qui donne au slavisme le caractere 
d'une sorte de loi naturelle et fatale, dont rien 
ne parait pouvoir arreter la marche " (" the 
steadfast passivity which gives to Slavdom the 
character of a kind of natural and final law, 
which apparently nothing can check in its 
course "). Not the favour of the Government, 
but the inherent vitality and ;native strength of 
the Jugoslavs, has made Trieste into a semi- 
Slav town. It is to be hoped that Englishmen 
of the type of Mr. ^Marriott will make a note 



190 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of this. Vellay fully recognizes that Italy's 
present policy will create an Irredenta compared 
to which the difficulties which Austria has had 
to face in the Italians |of the Littoral and the 
Trentine will appear mere child's play. Vellay 's 
whole hook is a strong warning to Italy. In 
his final summary the author advances the 
following principle : If the problem is to be 
justly solved, then Italy's political frontier must 
coincide with her national frontier. This is 
merely to restate in a different wording, that the 
Italians cannot claim anything beyond the Soca 
(Isonzo) frontier. 

5. The Quintessence of the Adriatic 
Problem. 

The problems of Trieste and the Slovene 
Littoral are only part of the general problem 
of the Adriatic. A closer analysis soon reveals 
that it is a mistake (to try to keep these two 
problems separate, as people unfortunately some- 
times attempt to do. Italy's endeavour to make 
the Adriatic into a mare clausum is only an 
extension of Italy's aspirations to the Littoral. 
The arguments put forward by Italy are almost 
the same in both cases. We stand in danger 
of merely repeating ourselves if we devote a 
few lines specially to the Adriatic problem. 

The beautiful coast from Trieste to Kotor, with 
its picturesque fjords, and the marvellously 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 191 

beautiful Dalmatian archipelago, is such an 
economic and scenic jewel that no nation could 
resign itself to its loss, let alo;ne a nation of 
such impetuosity in political matters as the 
Jugoslavs. An endeavour to keep a people of 
this type shut off from the sea would be an 
act with incalculable consequences. 

Now, what are the arguments by. which Italy 
is trying to defend her action? They are both 
Nationalist and strategic. 

Italian Nationalism is inspired throughout by 
historical tradition. The fact that Venice once 
ruled as she pleased in the Adriatic is exhaus- 
tively exploited. But did the ancient oligarchic 
Republic of Venice merit the name of a 
Nationalist State? Surely the old aristocratic 
republic was a most insidious foe to Italian unity, 
as defined by Machiavelli. What has ancient 
Venice to do with modern Nationalism? If 
Venetian provveditori misgoverned the Dalmatian 
Isles, and fleeced and oppressed the Jugoslav 
peasant, that certainly conveys no claim for an 
annexation. A new age has dawned, and nations 
have the right to direct their own destiny. The 
modern Italian State owes its existence to the 
political principles of the age. To annex a 
country and its inhabitants without consulting 
their wishes is a method of the past. Ask of 
the Jugoslavs whether they desire to become 
Italian citizens. Let a plebiscite decide the 



192 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANf 

problem over which Italians and Jugoslavs are 
divided. 

We are often met by the argument that the 
Adriatic has never long had two masters, but 
that by, a kind of historic law it was invariably 
the master of either the east or the west coast 
who was also lord of the Adriatic. A contention 
of this kind is always somewhat hazardous. Why 
should not two States share the possession of the 
Adriatic? The days when a mare clausum in 
peace time was justifiable are long dead and 
gone, and surely this is an appropriate moment 
toi point out that it was precisely England which 
killed the principle of the mare clausum in her 
wars with the Spaniards and the Portuguese. 
And now the creation of a mare clausum in 
another part of the world is being seriously con- 
templated, and would certainly not be to the 
advantage and profit of English economy and 
sea-trade . 

Now for the strategic point of view. Italy 
should be sole mistress of the Adriatic because 
her flat east coast is too exposed from' a military 
point of view. But Italians cannot ignore the 
fact that a young State, even though numbering 
twelve million inhabitants, is bound, during the 
early period of its existence, to pass through 
most trying financial and administrative crises— 
the infantile diseases of a State, so tO' say. Have 
the Italians already forgotten the record of their 



I 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 193 

own first twenty years or so? And the United 
Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes will 
have to face far greater crises than these. And 
is it likely that any nation will be in love with 
armaments after this war? Surely it is more 
probable that pacifist counsels will prevail and 
imperialistic programmes of armament meet with 
an international veto ? 

Most certainly Italy possesses important 
economic interests in the ^gean and in Asia 
Minor ; but surely it is not necessary for her to 
close a whole sea in order to have a base for 
military operations ! The great colonial peoples 
of the West, such as the English, have acted quite 
differently. First the trader entered the country, 
then the soldier and the official. 

The strategic argument advanced by Italy 
shows even less sound common sense. In order 
to protect the east coast of Italy, the greater 
part of the Dalmatian coast is to become Italian, 
and Split and Dubrovnik (Ragusa) are to lie 
within range of Italian guns. The founda- 
tion upon which this argument rests is as weak 
as that other, demanding that Italy should occupy 
the Littoral for strategic reasons. But a glance 
at an orographic map will suffice to show that 
the lUyrian coast -land is not separated from the 
orographic system of the Balkans. 

It is always best to be frank. Let the Italians 
confess that they need the sole control over the 

13 



194 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Adriatic in order to economically dominate the 
Jugoslav State of the future. Jugoslavia is to 
be a dumping-ground for Italian industryj, land 
Italian trade is to have the monopoly in the 
Balkans, so that the development of a native 
industry may be checked from the very outset. 
Perhaps they even think of directing^ the stream 
of Italian emigration towards the Balkans^ and 
dotting the country with Italian colonies. 

It i,s inever wise to tell tales out of school. 
An Italian political economist, Mario Alberti by 
name, has explained why Italy must be sole 
mistress of the Adlriatic. If Italy possesses the 
Adriatic it will be the leading Power in the 
Mediterranean ; in other words, Italy requires 
the Adriatic as an Italian lake, in order to obtain 
the hegemony in the Mediterranean. 

The Convention, a secret diplomatic treaty, 
whereby the Adriatic was handed over toi Italy, 
was concluded at a time when (the spring of 191 5) 
the Russian front in Poland had already begun 
to give way. It was extorted from Russia at 
the moment of a national and military catas- 
trophe. But shall a treaty by which the fate of a 
million human beings is decided not be amenable 
to the same laws which apply to every ordinary 
private contract ? 

Is it not an immeasurable tragedy, that by 
the signature under a secret treaty more than 
a million human beings are to be annexed against 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 195 

their will, and the Jugoslav State to be exposed to 
a position of constant economic and political peril ? 
Do not these considerations bringi us back to the 
idea that seclr|et diplomatic treaties are a disease 
in politics ? Can European democracy permit this 
abrogation of the sovereign right of nations ? 

In one of the most distinguished English 
reviews a pro -Italian writer has just expressed 
the view that England should not interfere in 
the difference between Italians and Jugoslavs. In 
this case the English should take it that silence 
is golden. If the advice of the above-mentioned 
writer is taken there will in the future be a new 
Alsace-Lorraine on the Adriatic. But there was 
the French population of Alsace-Lorraine, no more 
than 210,000, and it caused European unrest. 
In Germany is a Danish Question, although there 
are only 160,000 Danes. We had thought that 
in this age the sense of national justice was alive. 
But he who turns a deaf ear to the cry of the 
oppressed is likewise guilty of a terrible injustice. 
What has it profited England that in time past 
she has always sided with the Turks against the 
Balkan nations ? In the World War Germany, 
England's greatest enemy, was mistress ^t the 
Golden Horn, and Britain lost a hundred thousand 
of her best and bravest in killed and wounded 
in Gallipoli. Only a just- land generous policy, 
which is never deaf to the voice of the oppressed, 
is truly practical and therefore successful. 



; CHAPTER XII 

SLOVENE ECONOMICS' 

It is not possible to arrive at a correct understand- 
ing of the Austrian Nationalist struggles unless 
they are considered from the standpoint of 
economic interest. These struggles did not centre 
merely around the official language, public notices, 
and similar matter, but around the States and Slav 
influence in the State, which, of course, under Slav 
guidance would have led the Slavs towards 
economic prosperity. 

The Germano -Magyar monarchy had no interest 
in furthering the development of the Slavs ; nay, 
on the contrary, it actually strove to compass the 
economic ruin of Croatia. It is interesting to 
observe the effect produced upon the various 
Slav nationalities by a monarchy so constituted. 
The Czechs, without in the least considering the 
State, strongly developed their own national 
economic resources with a view to strengthening 

' The following article and MSS. were utilized by the author 
in writing this chapter, viz. : Josip Agnetto, " Gospodarski 
polozaj Siovences," Veda, vol. iv., and two anonymous papers 
in MS. 

196 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 197 

their national position. The Slovenes followed the 
lead of the Czechs on a more modest scale, yet 
in a manner not to be disregarded, for they were 
not slow to realize that their Nationahst strugigle 
would remain barren of result so long as they 
failed to bring economic resources to bear upon 
the issue. And they proceeded to create their 
own national economic system after the Czech' 
pattern. 

Economically speaking, the Slovenes are to this 
day a nation of peasants. Seventy-five j>er cent, 
of the population belong to the peasant class. To 
this day agricultural districts form the greater part 
of the Slovene lands, and it is a significant fact 
that from 91*6 to 99*9 per cent, of the 
peasant properties are small -holdings or minor 
properties up to 50 hectares. The Slovenes are 
not a nation of great landlords ; the land is fairly 
equally and justly divided, and under improved 
economic conditions this will prove a basis for a 
high standard of average prosperity. The largest 
estates are to be found in Carinthia, and th^ 
smallest in Istria, where their smallness tends to 
render farming unprofitable. The averajge Slovene 
peasant property is of such size that the owner and 
his family are sufficient to work it. The Carinthian 
and Styrian farmers are the wealthiest, yet ground 
rent is highest in the Littoral. 

Hops are most profitably cultivated in the 
Slovene part of Styria. No legs than 3,559 estates 



198 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

grow hops, and a very considerable proportion of 
the Austrian hop produce is of Slovene origin. 

Cattle farming is especially developed in the 
Slovene Alpine districts, where this branch' of 
farming is capable of great further development. 
Styrian cattle farming is far ahead of the cattle 
farming in other Austrian provinces. Cattle farm- 
ing is least developed in the Littoral, where the 
farming, except in the hill -country, bears an 
entirely local character. 

Owing to the favourable climatic conditions of 
the Littoral, farming presents many peculiar 
features there. The culture is the most intensive 
in all Austria. Sub-tropical fruits, vineyards, horti- 
culture — these are the resources of the Istrian 
farming population. 

If Gorica and Gradiska were to be annexed by 
Italy, both would be financially ruined. Neither 
county possesses any local industry worthy of 
notice, and 80 per cent, of the population is 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. Wine and 
fruits are the only exports. In 1913 these 
two counties produced a million hectolitres of 
wine, and almost one -half of the total was ex- 
ported. The cost of the production of wine is 
twice as high in the Littoral as in Lower Italy. 
If these districts were to come under Italian rule, 
the local wine industry would speedily be crushed 
.by Italian competition, and viticulture in Gorica 
and Gradiska would consequently have to cease. 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 199 

But this would entail the closing of one of the 
most important sources of wealth to the inhabitants, 
and the Whole rural population of the two counties 
would be fatally impoverished. Economic ruin 
would be all the more certain as the local fruit- 
growers would be equally handicapped in compet- 
ing with the Italian fruit-growers. 

But the abandonment of wine and fruit growing 
for some other form of industry would be attended 
by exceptional difficulty in the Littoral ; because 
there are parts of the country, such as, for instance, 
the Brda, the Vipava Valley, the Kras, and parts 
of Istria, where the soil is quite unsuited t{o any 
form of cultivation but wine and fruit growing, 
where cattle farming could never be made to yield 
even a living, and com can only be grown at a 
loss. 

So far the usie of machinery in agriculture is not 
at all widespread in the Slovene lands, and, indeed, 
the prevalence of small -holding's in Gorica and 
Istria is not favourable to its introduction. The 
introduction of agricultural machinery in Upper 
Carniola, Styria, and Carinthia would undoubtedly 
increase the productivity of the soil in these 
districts. 

Trade and industry are yet in their infancy in 
the Slovene lands, although the beginnings of their; 
development date back as far as the seventies. 
In those days were founded the Carniolian Indus- 
trial Company, the Leykam-Josephsthal Joint 



200 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Stock Company (1870), the coal-mines of Trbovlje 
(1872), and the Pliberk Mining Comf)any (1870). 
But all these great concerns are financed almost 
exclusively with German capital. This influx of 
German capital constituted an extremely grave 
danger to the Slovenes, and it is of the greatest 
importance that English and French money mar- 
kets should begin to take an interest in industrial 
enterprise in Slovene territory. A strong argu- 
ment in favour of these assertions is the fact that 
of the total capital of 119,000,000 kr. which is 
invested in industrial concerns in the Slovene lands 
and Dalmatia, only a negligible fraction is of 
Slovene or Croat origin. There are 165 joint- 
stock companies in the Slovene lands, with a total 
share capital of 191,000,000 crowns. In 1903 
there were 1,506 industrial concerns in the Slovene 
lands, and in 191 1 this number had already in- 
creased to 1,924. This is surely in itself sufficient 
proof that the initial stages of industrial develop- 
ment have been successfully passed in the Slovene 
lands. 

It would also be a mistake to assume that the 
industrial possibilities of the Slovene lands — with 
the exception of the Littoral— are incapable lof con- 
siderable further development. These countries 
are rich in coal deposits, and exceptionally rich in 
other mineral deposits and mines. One of the 
greatest mercury mines in the world is the Idrija 
mine in Carniola, 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 201 

Unfortunately, wholesale manufacture is mostly 
in foreign hands ; the small industry, on the other 
hand, is exclusively Slovene. The industrial 
statistics of Carniola show that 88*85 P^^ cent, of 
the industrial concerns in the province do not 
employ more than five workmen. Concerns of 
medium size amount to one -third of the whole 
number, and the percentage of wholesale manu- 
factures is only 2-15. 

Thus the Slovenes possess a typical class of 
small industrial owners and workers comparable to 
the owners of small -holdings among" the peasant 
class. The small manufacturer in Carniola usually 
employs motors driven by water power, the total 
number of which amounts to almost one -third of 
the number of motors of this type employed by 
the small manufacturers in Bohemia. 

The Slovene lands possess an inexhaustible 
reservoir of water-power which can be tapped for 
industrial purposes. This, the water-power of an 
Alpine country, is in itself a guarantee of great 
industrial possibilities. 

In some ways the lack of industrial enterprise 
on a large scale has led to evil consequences. By 
the agrarian crisis the agricultural class was 
compelled to seek industrial employment, and as 
the local demand for industrial labour was not 
sufficiently great, emigration offered the only 
solution. The Slovene peasant farmer either 
becomes an industrial labourer in the mines of 



202 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Upper Styria or is compelled to seek employment 
beyond the ocean. Whole districts have thus 
become depopulated by emigration. The Vienna 
Parliament showed itself incapable of directing the 
stream of emigration into the right channels and 
thus warding off the great social loss entailed by it. 

At the present day, 75-4 out of every 100 
Slovenes are landowners, 13-4 belong to the in- 
dustrial class, 77 are in Government employ, and 
only 3-5 are in trade. Slovene commerce is 
unfortunately still very undeveloped, although — 
especially in Trieste — Slovene commercial enter- 
prise has made great progress. That Slovene 
commerce is not more developed is largely the 
fault of the Government, which declined to grant 
the Slovenes a commercial college until they per- 
force created their own system of commercial 
schools in Trieste. 

The Slovene has great natural aptitude and 
talent for business, and most certainly the Slovenes 
are capable of developing a capable, reliable, and 
efficient commercial class. With one of the 
world's harbours, such as Trieste, in their hands, 
the Slovene would speedily develop his commercial 
abilities to the full. 

The commercial rise of Trieste has been truly 
phenomenal during recent years. The import and 
export of the harbour of Trieste amounted to 
7-17 million quintals in i860, to 30 million 
quintals in 1905, and in 1909 it even rose to 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 203 

50- 5 million quintals. The development of Trieste 
has made, especially, great strides since the new 
Alpine railway was completed. The town also 
possesses several great industries connected with 
the working -up of the im'ported raw materials, such 
as rice, paraffin, iron, and oil ; and Triestine ship- 
building, both of men-of-war and trading vessels, 
affords employment to thousands of workmen. 

Fiume could not easily become a dangerous rival 
of Trieste. It is true that the harbour of Fiume 
possesses certain not inconsiderable advantages, 
but in comparison with that of Trieste it is far too 
small to compete successfully with it, and the 
enlargement of the harbour of Fiume would cost 
many millions. Even if this expense were in- 
curred it would still be far from certain that the 
whole overseas trade of the Jugoslav lands could 
be directed through Fiume. Moreover, the next 
generation of Jugoslavs in Fiume will still lack the 
necessary stock of experienced business men with 
commercial relations with foreign places. Neither 
could the local banking system be developed suffi- 
ciently to support the financial business of a 'great 
trading centre. Experienced officials and skilled 
qualified labour would likewise be lacking. In 
short, the idea that Fiume could be made the rival 
of Trieste must be supposed as beingl fraught with 
many difficulties. 

Should Italy's political influence rule the 
Adriatic, Italy would easily succeed in controlling 



204 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the Jugoslav markets with the products of her 
own industries ; and owing to the advantageous 
conditions of freightage the products of Italian 
industry would be in a position to exclude British 
competition altogether. Italian industry is making 
unprecedented headway, especially in the provinces 
which will adjoin the Jug^oslav lands in the 
future, and with its many ramifications might 
easily gain complete possession of the whole 
Jugoslav market. If Trieste is given to Italy and 
Italy rules the Adriatic, the indispensable pre- 
liminary conditions for the creation of Jugoslav 
national industry will be discounted from the very 
outset, and Jugoslav trade and industry placdd 
absolutely at the mercy of Italy. 

Even so Italy has already established herself so 
firmly in the harbours of the eastern Adriatic that 
not many opportunities are left for the British and 
French mercantile fleets. In 191 2 the total 
tonnage of the shipping that entered the harbour 
of Trieste amounted to 4-6 million tons, and the 
total tonnage that left the harbour to 47 million 
tons. Of these, 4,336,000 tons sailed under the 
Austrian flag, 1,795,000 under the Italian, and 
only 490,000 under the British flag. If Trieste 
were handed over to Italy, these proportions 
would doubtless be greatly modified in Italy's 
favour. If, however, the eastern Adriatic is given 
to the Jugoslavs, the share taken to-day by the 
French, and especially the British mercantile fleets 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 205 

in the trade of Trieste will be greatly increased 
at the expense of those of other nations. 

It is difficult to understand the Slovene national 
struggle and Slovene economic development with- 
out a due appreciation of the Slovene co-operative 
system, which owes its existence to Michael 
Vosnjak. Michael Vosnjak, Slovene leader and 
political economist, began to organize Slovene 
capital in mutual loan societies. So long as 
Slovene capital was deposited in German and 
Italian loan societies and banks it was easy to main- 
tain that only the Germans and Italians had any 
capital at their disposal. Under the co-operative 
system the Slovene peasants and artisans were 
enabled to obtain credit on easy terms, and 
thus rendered independent of German and Italian 
capital and of the system of oppressive denation- 
alization. The co-operative organization of 
Slovene capital became a powerful weapon in 
the national struggle against both Germans 
and Italians. In almost all the larger towns on 
the linguistic frontier Slovene financial concerns 
founded " hostels for the people," which soon 
became the centres of the various Nationalist 
organizations. They also assisted Nationalist 
unions and schools, and founded bursaries for 
colleges and secondary schools. It is almost 
impossible to imagine the Slovene Nationalist 
struggle without the part played in it by the 
Slovene co-oper3.tive societies. In 1883 Vosnjak 



206 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

inaugurated a union of the Slovene loan societies. 
This was the third union of the kind to be formed 
in Austria, and for a long time the only one of its 
kind in Southern Austria. Vosnjak's institution 
became the pattern for similar foundations in all 
the Austrian Jugoslav lands, and both Slovene 
and Croatian capital is represented in it. 

In 1 910 there were 1,207 co-operative societies 
in the Slovene lands, 952 of which were purely 
Slovene. The total capital deposited with these co- 
operative societies amounted to 365,000,000 kr., 
and their reserve funds to 137,000,000 kr. About 
750,000,000 kr. are invested in Slovene joint- 
stock companies and limited liability companies or 
deposited with mutual loan societies. Throughout 
the Slovene lands the average sum of invested 
capital per inhabitant amounts to 350 kr., which 
is only slightly below the Austrian minimum. In 
1905 the deposits with the loan societies alone 
amounted to 314 kr. in Carniola, and in Carinthia 
to 222 kr., against an average of 233 in Bohemia. 
The increase from 1902 to 1905 amounted to 
6' 7 per cent, in Styria, to 11*3 per cent, in 
Carinthia, to 4*8 per cent, in Carniola, and only to 
10-3 per cent, in Bohemia. This is proof conclu- 
sive that Slovene prosperity is steadily increasing. 

The rise of the co-operative system was 
followed by a promising development of the 
Slovene bank system. In the Ljubljanska Kreditna 
Banka and the Jadranska Banka the Slovenes 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 207 

possess two important banking concerns. Within 
a few years the Ljubljanska Kreditna Banka 
increased its capital from 1,000,000 kr. to 
8,000,000 kr. The deposits amount to 
30,000,000-40,000,000 kr., and the annual turn- 
over was something like 3,000,000 kr. The 
Jadranska Banka in Trieste is a comparatively 
recent institution, but it already occupies an im- 
portant and respected position in the Triestine 
exchange. Many German and Italian firms have 
been financed by the Jadranska Banka. 

Before the foundation of the Jadranska Banka 
there was only one local bank in Trieste, th^ 
Italian Banca Commerciale Triestina. All other 
banks were merely branches of Viennese houses. 
In consequence of its slow business methods the 
Banca Commerciale scarcely succeeded in increas- 
ing its invested capital to 8,000,000 kr. within the 
course of half a century, and in the end found 
itself obliged to amalgamate with the Wiener 
Bankverein in such a way that the whole manag^e- 
ment passed into the hands of the Viennese 
concern. Thus it may truthfully be said that 
Trieste possesses but one independent local bank, 
which is the Jadranska Banka. In consequence 
of the rapid prosperity of the Jadranska Banka, 
two ^great Czech banks, the Zivnostenska Banka 
in Prague and the Ustrednc Banka, decided to 
found branch establishments in Trieste, with the 
result that the Slav banks have become a 



208 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

strong factor on the Triestine Exchange, and 
that the German economic Drang towards 
the Adriatic found a dangerous and successful 
rival in Slav capital. 

The beauty of the Slovene Alps, of the sea- 
coast, the wealth of scenic beauty to be found 
in the Slovene lands is such that with but little 
effort the tourist traffic could be developed into 
a considerable source of income for the country. 
As soon as the capital for the required invest- 
ments is available, and the tourist can be assured 
of the necessary comforts, the Slovene lands are 
certain to become an important centre of the 
European tourist traffic. Nature herself has 
provided the preliminary conditions, and the 
natives, who are industrious and exceptionally 
well fitted for the working of hotels, etc., will 
take readily to this new avocation. In the Alpine 
countries several tourists' hostels have already 
been founded which experience no difficulty in 
successfully competing with foreign inns. The 
Slovene lands may yet become a favourite tourist 
resort ; the beauty of the landscape certainly 
warrants such a forecast. 

A nation cannot fully and freely develop its 
native economic resources unless it is politically 
and financially independent. Handicapped by 
their unremittent struggle for bare national 
existence, the Slovenes have not been able to 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 209 

progress as rapidly as their own native ability 
and the geographical position of their country 
warrant. But if they were united with the other 
Jugoslavs, the Slovenes would soon prove that 
they possess the necessary material for develop- 
ing into a powerful economic factor. 

The geographical position of the Slovene lands 
is unique ; they form an unrivalled link between 
the Teutonic north and the Italian and Jugoslav 
south. Great political and economic interests are 
bound up with the ownership of these lands. 
Capital of the allied nations has not even begun 
the exploitation of these territories, which are 
still, comparatively speakings virgin soil as regards 
industrial development. And yet this would be 
an enterprise which could only benefit their 
general economic evolution. Moreover, important 
political considerations come into play here, which 
weigh heavily in the balance. 

The territory between the Drave and the 
Adriatic is a dyke holding" back the tide of 
Germanism. It is of vital interest to the allied 
nations that this dyke should be proof against 
attack, and that the German spring tide should 
not be strong enough to break it down and 
penetrate into the Balkans, and turn the latter 
into a province conquered by German capital, 
and part of a Gerfnan Empire extending as 
far as Bagdad. It would inflict a most severe 
set-back on Germany's economic schemes of 

14: 



210 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

conquest if the northern Adriatic territories were 
drawn into the economic sphere of the aUied 
nations. If England and France help in ousting 
Germany politically and economically from the 
Adriatic, they will have struck a great blow at 
German schemes of world-domination. There are 
few spots in Europe where this could be dome 
with equal effect. 

In all this we must not forget that the 
small nation of Slovenes, exposed to remorseless 
national, political, and economic pressure, has, for 
more than one thousand years^ contrived success- 
fully to withstand the German Drctng towards 
Trieste, and to frustrate the completion of the 
German bridge from the Belt to the Adriatic. 
What may, not be expected of a nation which 
achieved thus much in bondag^e, when once it 
is accorded the possibility of a free development 
of all its ethical and economic resources ! 

But if the Powers permit the Slovenes to be 
weakened, if they are rendered incapable of 
offering stout resistance by having part of their 
territory added to foreign States, they will no 
longer be able to fulfil their mission of forming 
a protective dyke against Germany. An unjust 
preference of Italy and the breaking up of 
Slovene or any other Jugoslav territory would! 
merely create a conflict between the Jugoslavs 
and Italy, a conflict which would impair the 
Jugoslav capacity for holding back Pati- 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 211 

Germanism — ^an inevitable conflict which' would 
provide opportunities by which Germany could 
not fail to profit and to use the rift in the 
Jugoslav territory to reach Trieste by that road, 
with the net result that in the end neither Italy 
nor the Jugoslavs would be masters of Trieste. 
Only a strong and united Jugoslavia is equal 
to the task allotted to it, of checkmating German 
influence in the Adriatic. 

A Jugoslavia whose western branch, the 
Slovenes, is to suffer serious injury — the amputa- 
tion of a right arm, ^Oi to say, not merely a 
minor, harmless operation, as many people seem 
to think — would, in its weakened condition, 
scarcely be able to hold back the might of 
Germany. The Slovene territory is the closing 
link in the chain which is to enclose the German 
economic territory. Shorn of any essential part 
of its territory, the western branch of the Jugo- 
slavs would not be in a position to fulfil their 
historic mission, and for want of support from 
within, the north-western part of the great dyke 
would be flooded and destroyed ; yet not only 
the Jugoslavs would suffer by this, but also 
France and England, and with them all that 
part of Europe which is at present fighting 
against German predominance. The vital in- 
terests of France and England, foremost among 
the States who are conducting the struggle 
against Germany's effort to make herself mistress 



212 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of the world, imperatively demand that the 
Jugoslavs shall be rendered economically strong 
to resist the German onslaught, the terrific force 
of which the Great War has disclosed to the 
world. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 

On the threshold of the twentieth century the 
old Habsburg Monarchy found itself confronted 
with an ominous problem. Like a terrible 
spectre the Jugoslav Question arose before the 
eyes of the Viennese potentates. No one had 
the courage boldly to grasp the nettle and to 
find a sound solution of the problem. And yet 
the very existence of the Monarchy was at stake. 
As Vienna was not capable of grappling with a 
full solution^ attempts were made to put down 
the movement by petty methods. Secret police 
officials, informers, and the State prosecutor 
usurped the office of the statesmen. The Zagreb 
(Agram) High Treason Trial, and the Friedjung 
Case were signs and tokens in the heavens, 
premonitions of the coming storm. 

So long as Jugoslav national feeling was weak, 
the effects of the Dualism were not yet aggres- 
sively obvious. During the first decades of its 
existence, it did not yet assume the definite form 
of a Magyar hegemony. Croatia was still treated 

with comparative clemency. But in proportion 

ai3 



214 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

as the political centre of gravity in the Monarchy 
was shifted to Budapest, the tremendous mistake 
of this constitutional system became increasingly 
apparent. Dr. Lueger, Mayor of Vienna, was 
the greatest enemy of the Magyar element. 
Gifted with true political insight, he realized 
that the Magyars were tampering with the 
stability of the State, and Jike a true parasite 
nation, would eventually bring the Monarchy to 
rack and ruin. 

As Germany became a world- Power, she 
showed herself increasingly desirous of an alliance 
with the Magyars. Even Bismarck had already 
sought to employ the Magyars for his own ends. 
German and Magyar Junkerdom, the German and 
Magyar policy of oppression, were splendidly 
suited to one another, ; both politically and socially 
these two mentalities were admirably calculated 
toi supplement each other. The policy of force 
in Berlin and the policy of force in Budapest- 
each suited the other. 

Already Berlin and Budapest believed that 
they had almost achieved their object of corrupt- 
ing and crushing the Jugoslavs. Croatia's 
autonomy was treated as a dangerous fiction, 
which was no longer in accordance with practical 
politics. The Slovenes were wholly taken up 
with absurd party conflicts, and had temporarily 
forgotten the great Jugoslav aims. In Belgrade, 
Magyar ism turned the Slerbia^ House of 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 215 

Obrenovic into a pliant agency. Serbia was 
corrupted, and a foreign policy which was both 
pro -German and pro -Magyar reduced the country 
to a state of almost complete dependence upon 
Budapest . 

_But with the accession of the Karageorgevici, 
all the calculations of the Magyars were doomed 
to miscarry, for the emancipation of the Serbian 
land and people began in earnest, and Serbia 
developed with fresh and youthful vigour. The 
Croats began successfully to resist the Magyar 
policy of brute force and violence. 

In consequence of the annexation of Bosnia- 
Herzegovina several million more Jugoslavs came 
into closer political touch with the Austrian Slavs, 
and the solution of the Jugoslav problem within 
the Monarchy became an immediate necessity. 
But this would have meant the sacrifice of the 
Dualism. 

The Magyars knew very well that iwithin a 
few years the Monarchy would have to concede 
a new political status to the Jugoslavs ; when 
Germany assumed her bellicose attitude, the 
Magyars were convinced that a successful war 
was the only means of crushing! the Jugoslavs. 
And here lies the reason why Germany's aggres- 
sive war-policy found such an enthusiastic echo 
in Hungary, which is equally guilty, with Germany 
of the horrors of the World- War. 

In this connection it is a matter of interest to 



216 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

explain how the Jugoslav Question gradually 
matured in the Monarchy. It is no exaggera- 
tion, but a statement in accordance with facts, to 
say, that no idea possesses greater importance 
for a correct estimate of Croatian conditions than 
this — that Croats^ Slovenes, and Serbs farm one 
nation, as regards their racial, intellectual and 
mental life; in other words, they form one 
'' culture -nation.'' Needless to say, we are 
here adopting that terminology which discrim- 
inates between *' culture-nations " and ** State- 
nations." Within a very short time the idea that 
Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes form one " culture- 
nation *' has gained general acceptance, and the 
Serbs living within the confines of the triple 
kingdom have likewise shown themselves equally 
ready to accept their adhesion to the Croatian 
" State-nation." But it is necessary to go into 
the past in order to prove that the Idea of Unity is 
not an ephemeral product of the politics of the day. 
The true and traditional name of both Serbs 
and Croats was not originally that of the 
politically differentiated Serb and Croat *' State- 
nation," but that of a people who called them- 
selves the Slovinci, without regard to political 
allegiance. The division into separate State 
forms by no means destroyed the ethnical and 
ethical unity, of the "culture-nation," and 
although it is true that in past centuries 
this unity became somewhat obscured, yet it 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 217 

reasserted itself with full vigour in the nineteenth 
century. The Illyrist movement was only a first, 
unsuccessful attempt to give this unity a new 
form. But this attempt was succeeded by two 
others which proved of the greatest importance 
for the party-formation among the Jugoslavs. 

In 1849 Vuk Karadjic published his treatise 
" Srbi svi i svuda " (" Serbs all and everywhere ") 
in the Kovcedjic, a journal appearing in Vienna. 
In this treatise he advocated the view that all 
Jugoslavs are Serbs, and speak the Serbian tongue. 
As a matter of fact, Vuk Karadjic merely voiced 
the Idea of Unity in his article, but in a crudely 
extremist form, since, logically speaking, it 
denied the existence of the Croats. It is distinctly 
one of history's ironies that this very Idea of 
Unity gave rise to some of the sharpest conflicts 
between Croats and Serbs. 

On the Croatian side it was Ante Starcevic who 
propounded a formula, which likewise expressed 
the idea of unity, but involved the negation of 
the Serbs. The whole train of thought of both 
these men may be summed up in the following 
sentence. Vuk ICaradjic was convinced that all 
Jugoslavs were Serbians, and Ante Starcevic was 
convinced that all were simply Croatians. But 
it cannot be too strongly insisted upon that both 
men must be considered pioneers of the movement 
in favour of Unity. 

Still, a considerable period had to elapse ere 



218 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the time was ripe ; and the passionate dissen- 
sions, whose true cause lay in a distorted 
conception of a sociological idea, could not fail 
greatly to injure the Jugoslav cause. But it was 
of the utmost consequence that the true con- 
ception of the Idea of Unity^ — complete national 
equality for both parties, absolute unity of the 
'* culture-nation " and differentiation between the 
national and the politico- constitutional standpoint 
— should win recognition at the very moment 
when the Croato-Hurigarian Union was beginning 
to lose its power of attraction. The unity of 
Serbs and Croats became the fundamental idea, 
the most characteristic feature of the modern 
spirit of Croatia, the vital nerve of her national 
life of to-day. 

For the better understanding of our subsequent 
exposition it is necessary to indicate in a few 
brief sentences how it is that we can speak 
of a Croatian supremacy in the Jugoslav world 
at this juncture, at the time when the old 
Croatian State had to give place to the 
Nationalist State. The year 1848 marks the 
division between the two periods. At that time 
the Croats were in every way in advance of the 
rest pf the Jugoslavs. The primitive state 
organism of the Serbs had scarcely yet developed 
the full character of a State, the Bulgars wenq 
unknown even to philologists and their country 
was a Turkish province. At that time the Croats 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 219 

were the only Jugoslavs possessing both art 
aristocracy and a middle class, the only Jugoslavs 
who could look back upon an uninterrupted 
administrative history, and with whom all spheres 
pf social life were equally developed. The Croats 
were a nation possessing political, intellectual, 
and social traditions tinged with certain aristo- 
cratic leanings. 

First of all, it is from an econoniic point of 
view that the year 1848 marks a turning-point in 
Croatian history. The agrarian reforms brought 
an economic revolution in their train which was 
fatal to the fortunes of the great aristocratic land- 
lords, and above all to the landed gentry. Apart 
from this the new, centralistic county constitution 
could not fail to break the political prestige pf 
the aristocracy in the County Assemblies. On the 
one hand the financial ruin of the aristocracy led 
to widespread democratization in public life ; but 
the most important result of this economic process 
was a thorough democratization of all social con- 
ditions, and above all, of politics. From being a 
people of aristocratic traditions the Croats became 
a democratic peasant nation, with the inevitable 
consequence that the social rift between them and 
the Slovenes and Serbs, whose chief characteristic 
is the absence of a socially privileged class, was 
now automatically bridged over. Thus this 
democratization became a strong factor in the 
development of Jugoslav aspirations towards unity. 



220 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Contemporaneous with these reforms another 
change took place which seriously affected the 
old State Constitution. This second change was 
mainly of a political nature. The indispensable 
pre-condition of unionism' with Hungary is the 
State_, in which all classes are represented, with the 
balance of power in the hands of the aristocracy. 
The union between two such States, linked 
together by a non -national State language, was 
bound to break down as soon as the " class State " 
was compelled to give place to the national State, 
and the universalist culture of intellectual en- 
lightenment was transformed into national culture. 
The instinctive animosity displayed by the Unionist 
elements towards Illyrism, which was an intel- 
lectual Nationalist campaign, was perfectly logical 
from this point of view. The difficulties by which 
Unionism is to-day beset date from the moment 
when the " estates of the realm," especially in 
Croatia, were transformed into a national and 
democratic State ; for the Union undeniably still 
partakes of the nature of the old " estates of the 
realm," being based on treaties and compromises. 

For the conception of even the possibility of the 
existence of a union between the two kingdoms of 
the Crown of St. Stephen, it is of paramount 
importance to realize what value one purposes to 
attach to the cessation of the class State as a 
factor for disruption. 

To every man understanding the conditions of 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 221 

the Slav south it was clear that a consolidation 
of the political life of the Balkan Slavs would 
profoundly affect the relations of the Jugoslavs 
to the Monarchy. The Balkan War was the great 
event which transformed a petty provincialism into 
proud political self -consciousness. In order to 
grasp the full import of these events we would 
point out that no national -political union was ever 
compassed with such impetuous vigour as that of 
the Balkan peoples. The Italians unified their 
State more or less because of military reverses 
and with foreign help. In Germany the constitu- 
tion of the Union was the fruit of long and slow 
development. With the Balkan peoples this spon- 
taneous outburst of energy was utterly unexpected. 

It is important to point out the effect exercised 
by the formation of the two gteat Nationalist 
polities of the nineteenth century upon the 
Austrian Italians and Germans. Before the 
political unification of Italy there was no Italian 
Nationalism in Austria. The beginnings of an 
Italian movement with strictly Nationalist aims 
do not go back beyond the sixties. A far more 
disastrous effect, however, was exercised upon the 
fate of Austria by the unification of Germany. 
It is certainly in keeping with subsequent facts 
that Hohenwart and Schaffle would have carried 
through a Federalist Constitution if France had 
not so ignominiously broken down in 1870. 

Whilst the problem' of Serbo-Croat unity 



222 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

occupied the chief place of interest from the very 
first, Slovene party politics stood aside for a long! 
time. They were the indispensable third party in 
the alliance. In the past century the ideal of 
Pan -Slavism was the very factor which belittled 
the importance of Jugoslav unity. This great all- 
Slav ideal, conceived on lines of gigantic and 
far-reaching scope, for a long time forced the 
more practical, realizable Jugoslav idea into the 
background. Here in the south Slovenes, Croats, 
and Serbs dwelt side by side ; all were threatened 
by one common foe, all were at the same stage 
of social development. Compared to this tiny 
reality, Panslavism was a beautiful dream ; but the 
great differentiation between such Slav nations as 
already possessed ancient intellectual and political 
traditions rendered the realization of an immense 
all -Slav macrocosm dif^cult. When in 1908, at 
the All -Slav Congress in Prague, Russians and 
Poles joined hands in the spirit of reconciliation, 
a very significant thing occurred. The Slovene, 
Croatian, and Serbian members of the Congress 
joined together in a Jugoslav group, so that a 
united Jugoslav group appieared beside the Russian, 
Polish, Czech, and Bulgarian groups. 

Although true brotherly cordiality has always 
existed between Slovenes and Croats, the Dualism 
provided an insurmountable barrier between them, 
dividing the Slovenes from the Croats. Up to the 
beginning of the present century their mutual 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 223 

relations were mainly formal — many words and few 
deeds. On the Slovene side it was that admirable 
scientific and literary institution, the " Matica 
Slovenska," which established the much -needed 
mutual intercourse and rekindled the interest in the 
necessary preparation for future intellectual unity. 
The Slovene scientific journal Veda fulfils the 
highly important task of drawing the intellectual 
circles of the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs closer 
together. It became the rule for all professional 
and trade journals to appear simultaneously both 
in Slovene and Croatian, 

All this progress in the mutual relations between 
Slovenes and Croats was due to the efforts of the 
younger generation, which gradually began to 
dominate public life. The young men of the 
Sloveno-Serbo -Croats, the men who were respon- 
sible for the publication of the Nase Doha in 
Prague — these began to exercise an ever -increasing 
influence in public affairs. In Croatia the Serbo- 
Croat Coalition, a result of the ideas of the new 
generation, scored a political triumph. The old 
Magyarophil Party was crushed, and on the ruins 
of the so-called Unionist Party the idea of Serbo- 
Croatian unity developed with ever -increasing 
vitality. Among the Slovenes the dead point was 
passed a little later, and with themi it was not so 
much in the life of party politics as in the world 
of science and journalism that the new Jugoslav 
idea made vigorous headway. In this revival of 



224 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the Jugoslav idea among the Slovenes the publicist 
activity of the Veda proved a decisive factor. 

Nor must the importance of several other new 
links between the Slovene lands and Zagreb 
(Agram) be under -estimated. Slovene scientific 
men were called to the University in Zagreb, and 
this introduced a totally new element into the 
mutual relations between Croats and Slovenes. In 
Zagreb, Slovene professors lectured to Bosnians, 
Dalmatians, and Istrians. The idea of Jugoslav 
unity showed ever clearer upon the horizon, and 
the idea of Jugoslav solidarity found its way to 
the heart of the Slovene intellectual classes, 
irresistibly, like one of Nature's forces. 

When in 1913 a Slovene University lecturer in 
Prague attempted to criticize the new Jugoslav 
movement he met with an energetic and unmistak- 
able refusal on the part of the Slovene academic 
world. Everybody realized that the days of Slovene 
particularism were numbered, and that Slovene 
national life imperatively needed the strong sup- 
port of its Jugoslav brothers. What -were one 
and a half million Slovenes — politically and 
economically weak— in the gigantic struggle which 
presently broke out between Germanism and 
Slavism? Only a united Jugoslav element could 
hope to count at all in this conflict. The World - 
War- and the terrible power of Pan -Germanism, 
which would undoubtedly have utterly crushed the 
Slovenes, have proved to whiat a degree the new 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 225 

Jugoslav idea had become an inevitable necessity, 
one might almost say a dictate of Nature. 

The fimdamental principle of this idea, as it 
has taken root among the Slovenes, is admirably 
defined in a resolution passed by the younger 
Slovene intellectuals in 191 3, and which runs as 
follows :— 

** As it is a fact that we, Slovenes, Croats, and 
Serbs, constitute a compact linguistic and ethnical 
group, with similar economic conditions, and so 
indissolubly linked by common fate on a common 
territory that not one of the three can aspire to a 
separate future, and in consideration of the fact 
that among the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs the 
Jugoslav national thought is even to-day strongly 
developed, we have extended our national senti- 
ments beyond our frontier to the Croats and Serbs, 
just as among them also the idea of national 
reciprocity with the Slovenes is spread abroad. 
By this we all become members of one united 
Jugoslav nation. This is the spirit by which all 
Jugoslavs must be animated. As regards the 
Slovenes, we would lay special stress upon the 
fact that the evolution of their sense of national 
responsibility towards the creation of the broad 
foundations of Jugoslavdom, is already to-day 
greatly strengthening their resistance against 
denationalization and foreign Imperialism." 

But not only the intellectuals, whose influence 
was already making itself felt in public life, but 

15 



226 A BtlLWAEK AGAINST GERMANY 

also the academic youth in the high schools and 
secondary schools was energetically drawn to the 
Jugoslav ideal. Numerous periodicals appeared, 
edited by high school students, and devoted to the 
cause of Jugoslav propaganda. In many an im- 
passioned article the folly of Slovene party politics 
was held up to obloquy, the pettiness of local 
interests ridiculed, the great original strength of 
the Jugoslav idea eulogized. A new spirit mani- 
fested itself in the Slovene intellectual world. It 
seemed as though it -wieve inspired by new energy 
and a new optimism. The apathetic indolence, 
the heavy pessimism of the last twenty years sud- 
denly seemed to have yielded to a sturdy national 
self -consciousness. The spirit of decadence which 
had invaded Slovene literature was almost swept 
away by a strong wave of a clean new nationalism. 
But not only the world of intellect, the masses also 
began to adopt the idea of Jugoslav unity with 
growing energy and devotion. Upon the masses 
the victories of the Balkan Alliance during the first 
Balkan War created a most profound impression. 
The call of the blood and the claims of the race 
were overpowering. Now men realized that both 
intellectuals and common people were being 
welded together by the irresistible force of a 
living idea. 

It would be wrong to assume that from the 
outset this train of thought had been such as to 
be hostile to a peaceful evolution. There were 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 227 

different aspects to the Jugoslav idea. The unifi- 
cation of the Serbs and Croats of the Monarchy in 
one single administrative unit was certainly a poli- 
tical idea, but it was a thoroughly loyal conception 
throughout, and free from even the slightest trace 
of Irredentism. On the contrary, the constitutional 
reform entailed by uniting the Slovene lands, the 
Kingdom of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
would have proved of immense advantage to the 
Monarchy. Such a step would — so people believed 
— ^have pacified the southern provinces, it would 
have put an end to a state of constant political 
tension, contributed to an improvement in Austrian 
foreign politics, and, finally, obviated the catas- 
trophe of 1 9 14-15. This was the opinion of 
many Germans. 

The minority of the Jugoslavs live outside the 
Monarchy. It is impossible that a political frontier 
should completely divide sons of one and the same 
race. The Germans of Austria and Germany 
maintain a close relationship, and as regards 
artistic and intellectual life, the political frontier is 
non-existent. Is there any such frontier between 
the French cantons in Switzerland and Italy? 
And yet none the less both French and Italian 
Swiss are loyal citizens of Switzerland. 

The Monarchy ought to have permitted the 
Jugoslavs on both sides of her frontier to enjoy 
similar intellectual reciprocity. Intellectual reci- 
procity between peoples inhabiting different States 



228 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

is the most ordinary thingi in the wiorld. But 
the Austrian Germans and Magyars w^ere much' 
too fanatical and obstinate to realize this^ and 
the most absurd police regulations frustrated 
every chance of continuous intellectual inter- 
course between the Jugoslavs of the Monarchy arid 
Serbia. The most innocuous Belgrade journals 
were stopped in Semlin, and it was almost con- 
sidered tantamount to high treason to profess the 
belief in Jugoslav cultural unity. 

When Austria mobilized in 1914, all Slovenes 
who were known to be adherents of the Jugoslav 
idea were arrested and imprisoned, although' no 
acts of high treason could be proved against 
them. It was proof enough for the Austrian 
myrmidons if a man owned to being a Jugoslav. 
The victims belonged to the social Hite of the 
Slovenes, and were representative of every class 
in society, from University, professors to board - 
school teachers, from mill -owners to peasants. 

The mighty manifestation of Jugoslav national 
sentiment during recent years preceding the out- 
break of the World -War was a ctirious and sig- 
nificant sign of the times. It was a premonition 
of the titanic struggle which was in preparation 
and was soon to flood Europe with a sea of blood. 
The Jugoslavs were compelled to admit : ** Taa 
res agltur! " The World -War must entail the 
solution of the Jugoslav Question, seeing that it 
was largely conditioned by the antagonism' between 
Germans and Jugoslavs. 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 229 

There is still one question open. The days of 
Slovene particularism are numbered. But what is 
to become of Slovene literature and the Slovene 
language? And will the latter have to yield to 
the Serbo-Croat tongue? Compulsion must not 
decide these questions. Practical considerations 
will prove so strong that without compulsion, 
simply, and in the natural course of events, they 
will bring about complete fusion in the future, 
coupled with due protection of all that is individual. 



CHAPTER XI,V 

THE STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE 

After the loss of their political independence and 
down to the end of the Middle Ages, the Slovenes 
could not continue the development of their litera- 
ture, the beginning's of which are shown in the 
records of the eleventh century. Twio great move- 
ments of world-wide importance have also been 
decisive for the life of Slovene literature, the 
Reformation and the French! Revolution. The 
three great Jugoslav reformers, Trubar, Verg'erius, 
and Flaccius Illyricus, were all three natives of 
the Sloveno -Croatian lands. Trubar is not the 
strongest personality among these three men — ^he 
was not in such close connection with the leaders 
of the Reformation as Vergerius ; but Trubar is 
the creator of the Slovene literary language, and 
his role is the same as that of Luther as regards 
the Germans. The Slovene translation of the 
Bible is an event of unique moment for the 
national life of the Slovenes. The first Slovene 
books were printed in 1550, arid that same year 
saw the establishment of the first printing press 
in Ljubljana. The first Slovene grammar iwas 



STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE 231 

published in 1584 by Adam' Bohoric, and the first 
Slovene dictionary was published in 1592. 

The Reformation was an intellectual renascence 
for the Slovenes. The foundationsi of a new 
national life were prepared by the religious move- 
ment which had Nationalist consequences. But 
this resurrection was soon stifled by the will of 
the House of Habsburg^ for whom the interests of 
the Church were those of the Dynasty. Meantime 
the seed was not lost. 

During the years in which the French Revolution 
was preparing there was a very strong and active 
literary movement in the Slovene lands. A circle 
of literary men was 'gathered together in the house 
of Zois, one of the most learned mineralogists of 
his day, who was in communication with many 
French contemporary scientific men. The most 
important man in this circle was the liberal-minded 
priest Vodnik, who, under the French domination, 
organized the public instruction in the Illyrian 
provinces. Vodnik's poem, '* Illyria Resurrected," 
is the song of the Slovene resurrection and at the 
same time a glorification of the French Empire. 
The first Slovene journalist was Vodnik, who 
edited the journal Ljabljanske N ovine during the 
years 1 797-1 800. In 1843 Bleiweis began the 
publication of the Kmetlske in Rokodelske novice. 

Slovene intellectual life, like Slovene poHtical 
life, knows no slow evolution. There are long 
periods of stagnation and abrupt changes to 



232 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

intense activity. The poetic genius of Presern had 
no precursor. All of a sudden Slovene literature 
had found an incomparable master who was on a 
level with the intellectual life of his age, and who 
gave to his nation a poetry which may claim 
equality with the n^asterpieces of European 
literature. 

The Slovenes have given the world a whole 
line of scientific men, more than one would 
expect from a nationality of one million and a 
half. The glory of the Slovenes is Slav phil- 
ology. Kopitar and Miklosic, who was called by 
the Germans the greatest grammarian of the cen- 
tury, are masters in this branch' of philology. But 
the Slovenes excel also in mathematics. Vega, 
who lived towards the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, was one of the best known mathematicians of 
his day. 

The evolution of the Slovene press in our own 
day is proof of a strong intellectual movement. 
In 191 2 there were 122 Slovene papers. (All the 
Poles together have only 600 papers.) The cir- 
culation of the political dailies is from 10,000 to 
30,000 copies. The Domoljuby which is pub- 
lished exclusively for the Carniolian peasantry, has 
a circulation of 5 1,000 ; the popular journal 
Slovens kl Dom has a circulation of 28,000. The 
agricultural weekly paper has 50,000 subscribers 
in Camiola alone. Gorica was one of the centres 
of Slovene press activity. Five political papers 



STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE 233 

and many literary and scientific reviews were 
published there, among which the Veda must be 
mentioned as one of the most influential with 
regard to Jugoslav political ideas. The literary 
life and productivity of Ljubljana was also well 
developed, and the oldest of the Slovene literary 
reviews were published there. 

According to the official statistics of 1910, 
85*34 per cent, of the Slovene population can read 
and write. Yet in Hungary only 62' 02 per cent, 
can read and write, and in Italy 62*40 per cent. 
In some Italian provinces the number of illiterates 
amounts to 85 per cent. In Rome, the capital 
of Italy, the illiterates nimiber 65 per cent. 
(Borghese, " L' Italic Moderne "). The number of 
Slovene illiterates is 23-26 per cent, in Carinthia, 
1475 per cent, in Gorica, 12*86 per cent, in 
Trieste, 12-46 per cent, in Carniola, and 1 1*54 per 
cent, in Styria. 

One of the saddest results of the Nationalist 
struggles in Austria is that the resources of 
culture have been pressied into the service of 
'Nationalist warfare. The educational system has 
become the most important battle-ground of all^ 
and of course the advantage lies with the 
nationality that possesses a prosperous middle 
class, enjoys the favour of the Government, and 
may hope moreover to receive financial subsidies 
from abroad. In all these respects the Slovenes 
.are distinctly placed at a disadvantage. 



234 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

The various Nationalist school unions have 
already been referred to in the chapter dealing 
with the Nationalist struggle of the Slovenes 
against both Germans and Italians. At present 
we are dealing' with a different problem', which 
is to examine what the State is doing for Slovene 
education, and what manner of educational system 
exists in the Slovene lands. 

Of all the Slovene lands, Carinthia is the worst 
off: for schools. In this province there are only 
two primary schools to provide for the needs of 
100,000 Slovenes. 

The so-called " Utraquistic " schools are an 
institution without any legal status and con- 
stituting, in fact, a grave infringement of all 
legislation concerning primary schools. It is a 
shame and even a scandal that in the Slovene; 
lands 5 6' 7 per cent, of the Austrian State schools 
belong to this type. An " Utraquistic " school 
is neither more nor less than a school in which 
during the first term of the first school-year the 
tuition of Slovene children is carried on in both 
German and Slovene, and after that exclusively 
in German. This is, of course, a grave infringe- 
ment of one of the first principles of pedagogy, 
which is, that tuition should be imparted solely 
in the mother tongue of the pupil. In the 
" Utraquistic " schools the tuition is in the hands 
of teachers who are neither acquainted with the 
Slovene tongue nor true pedagogues, but first 



STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE 235 

and foremost fanatical Nationalist Chauvinists. 
The results of such instruction may readily be 
imagined. The children are forcibly denation- 
alized, but on the other hand, they do not acquire 
a thorough knowledge of German either ; so that 
the ** Utraquistic " school system entails a very 
grave danger to the moral qualities of the Slovene 
rising generation, in view of the problems of later 
life. 

And here we must briefly mention that tlhe 
primary school system in Trieste is likewise 
exceedingly detrimental to the Slovene interests. 
The mere fact that not one single primary school 
is provided for the 60,000 Slovene inhabitants 
of Trieste conclusively disproves the Italian 
allegation that the Government favours the 
Slovenes. In Trieste, in Pola, and in Opatija 
(Abbazia) the Government maintains German 
primary schools for a small, non-indigenous 
colony of German immigrants ; but the Slovenes, 
who are the real natives, are left unprovided for. 

As the primary school [system forms a very 
important department of the provincial adminis- 
tration, in which the Italians — ^owing tO' an 
undemocratic and reactionary electoral system — 
still possess a majority, the backward condition 
of the school system constitutes a grave reproach 
to the ruling party. In Ifetria there are no less 
than 14,000 Jugoslav children of school age who 
are without any school instruction whatsoever, 



236 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

because there are not lenough primary schools 
in the country. It certainly cannot be said of 
the Italians in Istria that they display great 
interest in the progress of culture. 

I need hardly explain that English conditions 
cannot by any means be compared with Austrian 
conditions. England possesses an educational 
system which is suitable for a wealthy country. 
In a poor coimtry like Austria all education must 
be public and not a matter of private enterprise, 
as otherwise education would speedily become 
the privilege of a small stratum of the upper 
middle classes, while the great majority of the 
people would be debarred from its benefits and 
thus indirectly deprived of all possibility of 
improving their position in life. Such nation- 
alities as have no middle class, or among whom 
the middle class is a thing of recent growth 
and not yet fully established, would, under a 
system of private education, ,be cut off from all 
possibility of making their voice heard in public 
life. 

As regards secondary schools in the Slovene 
lands, the State is well aware that a nationality 
without secondary schools cannot progress. With 
truly admirable energy the S,tate renders assistance 
to German secondary schools in the Slovene lands, 
while in every way endeavouring to prevent the 
institution of Slovene secondary (Schools. 

The way in which the Government has pro- 



STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE 237 

ceeded in the Littoral ^fiords perhaps the most 
characteristic example of its methods. In the 
Littoral the Government maintains five complete 
secondary schools for 27,000 Germans, viz. 4,000 
in Gorica-Gradiska, 14,000 in Trieste, and 
12,000 in Istria, and not even one complete 
secondary school with Slav tuition for a popula- 
tion of 250,000 Slovenes. The solicitous care 
of the Government for the Germans of Gorica- 
Gradiska is almost amusing. The 4,000 Germans 
of Gorica possess two secondary schools. In 
1909 only thirty-five of the 585 pupils attending 
the Gymnasitmi were Germans, and since then 
the number of Germans has materially decreased. 
Surely these facts prove clearly that the German 
element in the southern provinces is artificially, 
fostered and preserved. 

The number of scholars attendirigi isecondary 
schools provides a very igood criterion for the 
intellectual development of a 'given nationality 
in the Austrian Empire. Although the State has 
neglected the Slovenes to an inexcusable extent, 
and Slovene schoolboys are compelled to pursue 
their studies at gymnasia where tuition is imparted 
in an alien tongue, yet the number of scholars 
attending secondary schools is very considerable 
in the Littoral. Of the total number of scholars 
attending gymnasia (secondary classical schools) 
in the Littoral 1,072 ^.re Slovenes, 362 Croats, 
and 3,845 Italians. Of the total number attending 



238 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

real schools (secondary modern schools), 998 are 
Slovenes, 319 Croats, and 3,574 Italians. 

In the purely Slovene province of Carniola 
the State, even to this day, does not maintain 
even one secondary school where the tuition is 
purely Slovene ; in all schools the tuition is 
partly in German, partly in Slovene. In Styria 
there are twelve secondary schools ; but there 
is not one Slovene secondary school for the half- 
million Slovene inhabitants of the province, and 
in only two secondary jschools a few subjects 
are taught in Slovene as well as in German. 

Up to the present the Slovenes are very 
inadequately provided with professional training 
schools ; only Ljubljana (Laibach) possesses a 
technical professional school. The Jugoslavs of 
the Littoral do not possess a single professional 
training school where the tuition is in Slovene 
or Croatian. The technical college in Trieste 
is Italian, and so are the two naval training 
schools in the Littoral. 

It might be objected that a nationality with- 
out a proper system of secondary schools is not 
entitled to a High School. But in this case 
such an argtiment would be pure sophistry. The 
sole reason why the Slovene system of secondary 
schools is developing so very slowly and gradually 
is the fear of the Government lest the German 
influence should be weakened. . 

The Slovene language is fully developed, and 



STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE 239 

periodicals and books on all subjects in all 
spheres of learning appear in it . The Government 
refuses to provide the Slovenes with a Nationalist 
school systemi, not because they, are not suffi- 
ciently advanced, but because they would become 
too dangerous rivals to the German element if 
they had it. , 

During the short but glorious period of French 
rule in the Slovene Jands, Napoleon gave the 
Slovenes a kind of Academy. Subsequently the 
demand for a Slovene Academy was particularly 
emphasized in 1848. In Ljubljana the lectures 
on civil and criminal law were given in Slovene 
in 1849. In the 3tyrian provincial University 
of Graz the weU-known Slovene jurist Kranjec 
lectured on Civil Law in the Slovene tongUe. 
Although the Slovenes constitute one-third of the 
population of Styria — and surely their language 
is entitled to some consideration in the provincial 
University, just as Italian lectures are held in 
the University of Berne, and German lectures in 
the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne— the 
Slovene lectures at the University of Graz 
were soon suspended for fear that the German 
character of the college should be imperilled. 

No Austrian Government has had the courage 
to deny the justice of the Slovene claim to 3. 
University. In Austria there are five Universities 
for nine million Germans, two for four million 
Poles, and there is one for the six million 



240 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Czechs. The four million Ruthenes, seven 
hundred and sixty thousand Italians, and two 
million Austrian Jugoslavs possess no national 
Universities of their own. No Austrian Minister 
of Education can deny that the Universities and 
Academies ought to be nationalized^ but as yet 
none has taken the fask in hand. The Minister 
of Education, Hertel, in especial, expressed great 
sympathy with the claims pf the Slovenes to a 
national University. It is certainly the height of 
absurdity that the future judge, advocate, and 
administrative official has to pass his examinations 
in German, although he will be subsequently 
called upon to judge land plead in the Slovene 
tongue and to employ it in the exercise of his 
official duties. 

The Austrians could solve the question of a 
Slovene University in a moment and without 
incurring even a halfpenny of expense. The 
Francis Joseph University in Zagreb (Ag'ram) is 
the oldest Jugoslav University. The syllabus 
includes lectures on Austrian law besides those 
on Croatian law, and several members of the staff 
are Slovenes. Ever since the University was 
founded in the seventies, a scheme of reciprocity 
between it and the Austrian Universities has been 
in contemplation. The Austrian Croats and 
Slovenes demand that a student should be able 
to qualify for the Austrian Civil Service by 
passing his examinations in Zagreb. In Austria 



STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE 241 

this demand was opposed chiefly by the German 
Universities, who would lose financially by such 
an arrangement. For if the reciprocity scheme 
were put in force, the German Universities would 
lose their Jugoslav undergraduates. But the 
Zagreb University has a far more potent 
antagonist in the Hungarian Premier, who would 
fain .keep the Slovene and Croat academic youth 
in Zagreb from realizing how humiliating and 
crushing is the effect of the present political 
system upon the Jugoslavs. 

The Slovenes demanded Home Rule iq the past, 
but not Home Rule in the Irish sense. Their 
demand included a demand for Home Rule in all 
branches of intellectual life. They possessed a 
literature in an idiom of their own and the begin- 
nings of independent scientific activity. Their 
scientific and literary association — the Slovenska 
Matica — which was dissolved by the Government 
upon the outbreak of the war, has the traditions 
of a half -century of steady growth and successful 
activity. The most important Jugoslav scien- 
tific Institution in the Monarchy, the Jugoslav 
Academy of Science and Fine Arts in Zagreb, 
is the common heritage of both Slovenes and 
Croats. The Academy was founded by one of 
the greatest champions of the Jugoslav idea. 
Bishop Juraj Strossmayer. 

It would be a mistake, moreover, to assume 
that knowledge and (education are restricted to 

16 



242 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the leading classes . Slovene civilization is not 
exclusive or aristocratic^ the privilege of a small 
circle — on the contrary, it has always shown a 
tendency to be a true, democratic civilization of 
the whole people. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SLOVENE PARTY POLITICS 

It is not easy to sketch the political party life 
of a small nation. It is far easier to describe 
the party politics of a great nation, where there 
can be no lack of 'great outlines and striking 
personalities who set their mark upon their party 
and their age. In a small nation all this is 
reproduced on a small scale ; still, the essentials 
are the same, and here, too, we meet with 
strong individualities, creating and leading 
parties. Only the whole political life is adapted 
to the visual angle of small interests, which only 
too often coincide v^ith personal .advantage or 
detriment . 

All this is exceedingly true as regards the 
Slovenes. Yet they never lacked one fundamental 
leading principle, which frequently saved Slovene 
politics from the slough of petty party conflicts. 
This was ever and always the idea of national 
Slovene autonomy. Whenever the political life 
of the Slovenes sank to a particularly low level in 
the workaday stress of party conflicts, this period 

213 



244 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

always coincided with' a time in which the chief 
end was for a time lost si^t of. On the other 
hand, all brighit and pptimistic periods of their 
political life were times when the ideal of 
Slovene independence had strongly captured 
public opinion. The days of decline were always 
those in which party squabbles gained the upper 
hand and the final goal was forgotten. 

In 1848 Slovene party structure was exceed- 
ingly simple. A handful 'of educated Slovenes 
represented a peasant nation. There was no time 
to create different party standpoints on account 
of religious differences. Some politicians were 
Conservative, others inclined towards Liberal 
ideas. They adopted a given attitude without 
having been entrusted by their electors with a 
mandate to represent this or that point of view. 
Politicians voiced their own: opinions, not those 
of their electors. There was no question of 
forming groups according to party programmes. 
In the sixties a certain amount of prog'ress 
had already taken place. Party organization — 
even though of a somewhat ill -defined type— had 
become increasingly necessary, since the Slovene 
programme had penetrated the masses. But in 
those days the Slovenes were united. Against 
the sturdy Nationalism of that age clericalism 
could make no headway. Moreover, at that time 
all minds were too fully occupied with the gteat 
national issues to have leisure to spare for othey 



SLOVENE PARTY POLITICS 245 

proiDlems which might have proved points of 
departure for party politics. The first division 
took place in the seventies, when the younger 
generation parted from the older, and the Young 
Slovenes formed a party apart from the Old 
Slovenes. But this division was mainly of a 
tactical nature ; there was no question yet of 
fundamentally differing party programmes. Only 
the Young Slovenes were more strongly 
Nationalist than the Old Slovenes, and also more 
radical in their attitude towards the Government. 
Nor did the Young Slovenes form an anti- clerical 
party, and Chiurchmen were fairly frequent in their 
ranks. The Slovemki Narod became the principal 
news-organ of the new party. 

But the new party system did not permit of 
united action in Nationalist questions. Slovene 
politicians showed themselves' unable to combine 
a party system with complete solidarity in 
national affairs. Consequently, a diminution of 
the political influence of the Slovenes soon 
became apparent, and the Germans derived un- 
questionable advantagie from disunion. On the 
other hand, it must be admitted that the Young 
Slovenes lost courage too quickly, and by their 
amalgamation with Conservative elements paved 
the way for the future Clerical parties. Before 
Mahnic made his appearance Slovene party 
conflicts partook more of the character of news- 
paper polemics and discussions, such as may 



246 A BULWARTt AGAINST aEBMANif 

occur between members lof one and the same 
political union. But in ^he eighties we come 
to a definite breach. 

With a truly amazing zeal and unimpeachable 
logic a young Catholic priest named Mahnic 
propounded the thesis that Nationalism is a sin, 
and thkt the Slovenes have a right to exist only 
so long as they remain faithful to Roman 
Catholicism. All Slovenes who fail to obey the 
dictates of the Church ought to be eliminated 
entirely from political life. It is a gospel of 
intolerance, religious strug^gle and persecution that 
permeates the pages of Mahnic 's journal, the 
Rimski K.citolik (1888-96). The mere name— - 
The Roman Catholic — ^is highly significant. 
Slovene politics had reeled from one extreme 
to the other. If the former lack of differentiation 
in political matters had been an evil, certainly 
the new virulent party spirit, with its excess 
of party hatred and its refusal to recognize 
the Slovene national fight for existence, was 
a far greater misfortune. In extenuation it may 
be said that with a young nation possessing no 
political traditions, the party spirit is apt to 
assume exaggerated proportions. 

The liberal-minded Opposition replied by 
founding the Slovan, a paper intended to become 
the intellectual focus of the Radical Party. But 
the tendency represented by Mahnic was power- 
fully backed by the dogmas and political 



SLOVENE PAHTY POLITICS 24? 

philosophy of the Catholic Church. The Radicals 
were far too idealistic, and proved unequal to 
the task of building up a political party on the 
foundations of well-established ethical concep- 
tions. In fact, the apostles of future progress 
lacked the courage to formulate a consistently 
Liberal programme which would be in definite 
opposition to Clerical aspirations. The Slovene 
Progressives organized themselves into a party 
in 1894. Yet time and again attempts were 
made at establishing an understanding which had 
become impossible as the breach was now 
complete. The Catholics created a strong party 
organization, the true foundations of which were 
laid on the first Slovene " Catholic Day " in 
1.892. 

The All-Slovene gathering in 1897, in which 
both Clericals and Progressives took part, was 
really a piece of political insincerity, as it was 
already clear that each party would have to go 
its own way separately. The " Christian " 
foundation which was adopted by both parties 
as a platform formula became an unmitigated 
Ultramontanism in the hands of the Catholics. 
The "Catholic Day" of 1900 clearly demon- 
strated the immense progress made by the Clerical 
Party, which now scored one victory after another. 
The Clerical Party was the enemy of the Slovene 
middle class, of the Progressive tradesman and 
large landowner. It was in favour of universal, 



248 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

equal, and direct suffrage, ^nd strove to gain 
the support of the masses chiefly by democratic 
organization of the co-operative system. In 
contrast the Progressives were more Conservative, 
they were not greatly in favour of universal, 
equal, and direct suffrag^e, and they were more 
behind-hand as regards questions of economic 
organization. On ttie other hand, the Clerical 
regime was not without its dangero;us drawbacks. 
Clerical party politics relegated Nationalist ques- 
tions to the backgroimd, created a co-operative 
system on an unsound basis, and took not enough 
interest in the emigration question, which was 
becoming an economic problem for the Slovenes. 
Clericalism was also responsible for the gtowth 
of an extremely bitter party feeling in the country. 
The advent of the Clerical Party into power 
brought universal strife in its train instead of 
healthy political vitality. The introduction of the 
universal, equal, and direct vote for the Imperial 
Parliament finally established the political pre- 
dominance of the Clericals, and an extension jof 
the vote for the Carniolian provincial Parliament 
placed the provincial administration ,of Carniola 
in their hands. 

Between the Progressives and the Clericals a 
third party, that of the Social Democrats, plays 
a very modest part. Industry is not greatly 
developed in the Slovene lands. On the other 
hand, all the great cities containing large numbers 



SLOVENE PARTY POLITICS 249 

of Slovene working men are of mixed nationality, 
like Trieste and Graz. In Trieste, which is a 
great centre of industry, the Socialist Question 
is quite absorbed by the Nationalist Question 
and Slovene Nationalism. Moreover, the Social 
Democrats were far too inclined to make common 
cause with German and Italian working men's 
Associations, laying far too little stress on the 
Nationalist standpoint, which was another reason 
why Social Democracy failed to make much 
headway. 

When the onslaught of Pan-Germanism became 
more violent a revision of Slovene party politics 
became inevitable. Doctrinarianism and the 
political party feuds in Carniola had always been 
unpopular in the south. The Triestines created 
a party of their own, and in 1 9 1 2 the younger 
Gorician politicians organized the Slovene Inde- 
pendent party, which scored a decisive victory 
over the Clericals in the provincial parliamentary 
elections of that year. The fundamental principle 
of the Triestine and Gorician parties is that the 
Nationalist Question takes unqualified precedence 
of religious and social questions. Be Nationalist 
first, and only secondarily Clerical or Socialist ! 
Before the Great War it seemed as if this course 
had been recognized as the only necessary and 
inevitable one by all intelligent Slovenes, and 
that the new Independent Party was going to 
overshadow all the older ones. Thus, even in 



^^0 A BULWARK AGAINST? GERMANY 

party politics the nation levinced sound political 
instinct with regard to the great international 
problem which the World -War was to lay bare 
in all its acuteness. 

Both Socialists and Clericals followed the 
development of the Jugoslav Problem with lively 
interest. The Socialist Party called itself the 
'* Jugoslav Social Democracy," and adopted the 
unification of the Jugoslavs as a plank in its 
own platform. The Clerical Party amalg^amated 
officially with the Croatian Right a few years ago 
in Opatija (Abbazia), and adopted the constitu- 
tional programme formulated by the Croatian 
Right in 1894 in its entirety. This party 
professes the principle that Slovenes and Croats 
form one national unit, ^.nd it aims at a union 
of: the Croatian and Slovene lands. At the time 
of the Bosnian annexation all parties in the 
Carniolian Diet, with the exception of ^the Germans, 
voted for the union with Croatia. 

In this way the Jugoslav idea has profoundly 
influenced even party politics. Although the 
various party programmes have not yet clearly 
expressed the political aspect of the idea, yet it 
is safe to assert ithat leven before the outbreak 
of the war Slovene public opinion had accepted 
the idea of union with Croatia as a fundamental 
political principle of the near future. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 

It was a sinall and a humble world in which until 
lately the Slovenes lived, moved, and had their 
being. Theirs was not a national life, throbbing 
with glad initiative and the sturdy joy of living. 
A ghastly nightmare weighed upon the little 
nation. Two powerful nations, unified into Great 
Powers, constantly menaced its very existence and 
strove to crush it with the terrific weight of huge 
nimibers and the tremendous resources at their 
disposal. And the little nation refused to yield in 
the conflict, although the odds were so unequal. 
And yet, now that we can more clearly survey the 
full power of the German Colossus, we must own 
that the Slovenes could scarcely have prolonged 
their resistance to Germanism for more than a few 
years. If the World -War had not broken out 
their fate would have been sealed ere long. 

Thus we are brought face to face with a simple 
question. Is there an object in preserving the 
existence of the Slovenes ? Are they useful mem- 
bers of the family of Slav nations ? If the Slovenes 

251 



252 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

have no great task to fulfil, they are mere ballast 
in the European community of nations. But if 
we take the trouble to examine the true state of 
affairs, we are forced to admit that the Slovenes 
not only have the right, but even the duty, to 
maintain their position in the land where Provi- 
dence has placed them. 

A glance at the map will suffice to show the 
incalculable importance of the Slovene territories 
from a politico -geographical point of view. This 
narrow wedge, driven in at just that point between 
Germanism and Italy, possesses an importance all 
its own. It may be regarded on the one hand as 
a bridge between North and South, or again as a 
dividing element, assuring: the maintenance of a 
just balance of power. 

It would be a disastrous mistake if England 
and France failed to recognize the importance of 
this strip of country. Its value is not inferior to 
that of Belgium. A German occupation of the 
Slovene lands would be not one whit less disastrous 
than the annexation of Belgium by Germany. 

The Slovene people dwelling in this angle where 
the German, Italian, and Slav worlds meet are 
well fitted to fulfil the great task of weakening 
foreign Imperialism in the interests of European 
democracy, and — with the help of the whole of 
Jug^oslavdom — ^of keeping it fully within bounds. 

The Great War is the Crusade of German Im- 
perialism. But the Slovenes were not only in 



GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 253 

danger of being absorbed by Germanism. Their 
southern neighbour, Italy, was on the point of 
developing an Imperialism which^ although less 
dangerous, was nevertheless strong enough to 
threaten the Slovenes with destruction. True, 
there is a difference between the two which must 
not be underrated. German Imperialism frankly 
professes that might goes before right, and that 
the voice of Junkerdom must decide in the State. 
Italian Imperialism is more discreet ; it flirts with 
democratic sentiments, and cannot deny that it 
was bom in a democratic State, although no true 
son of democracy. But the fact cannot be denied 
that an Imperialism of this type, aiming at 
denationalization, is fundamentally illiberal and 
undemocratic and a blasphemy against the great 
ideals for whose victory men are striving and 
d)dng on the battlefields of Europe. 

It is the duty of Europe to deliver the great 
thoroughfare of the nations which unites North 
and South, East and West, one of the most central 
countries of Europe, a sea which Germany with 
startling effrontery calls its own '* lungs," from 
foreign Imperialism, and to grant the Slovenes the 
blessing of civic freedom. 

The Dualism of Austria -Hungary, with its in- 
ternal chaos, was one of the true causes of the 
World -War ; it was a crim'e against Europe. It 
is an admitted fact that it would greatly serve the 
interests of Europe if the fifty million inhabitants 



254 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of the Monarchy were delivered from^ 'gross 
political misgovemment, and the Monarchy re- 
placed by rationally organized political units. But 
this work would have to be carried through con- 
sistently. The territory between the Adria and 
the Drava is unquestionably the key to the scheme 
of general reform. This strip of land is the most 
valuable of all, for it is here that the German 
access to the southern sea can be cut off. And this 
land is inhabited by a nation whose whole national 
development is in harmony with those ideas which 
are to guarantee the happier future of the nations. 
It would be a wretched piece of patchwork if the 
Slovenes were from heedlessness or ignorance 
sacrificed to German or Italian Imperialism. 

Democracy has always been the fundamental 
note of Slovene political life. Democracy stood 
beside the cradle of Slovene nationalism and could 
it have been consistently put in public practice, it 
would have strengthened the position of the 
Slovenes even within the Monarchy. It was the 
one battle-cry of Slovenedom. Without an aris- 
tocracy, without an ancient nobility, without 
strongly marked class distinctions, the Slovenes are 
a nation of self-made men in the best sense of the 
word. In virtue of their whole nature they will fit 
well and easily into the European demiocracy which 
will arise after the war. The sense of solidarity 
between the different social strata of the nation is 
very strongly developed among the Slovenes. As 



GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 255 

after the war and with the breakdown of socialistic 
phraseology the tendency towards solidarity within 
the scope of the individual nation will be stronger 
than ever before, the Slovenes will then afford a 
good example of the sense of national solidarity of 
all classes. 

Besides the establishment of democracy and 
social solidarity, another result of the great 
struggle will be a refined Nationalism, freed from 
Imperialistic dross, full of appreciation of the good 
and great things created by other nations. What- 
ever is good and vital in Slovene culture and 
politics has sprung from National sentiment, from 
their own proper Nationalism. Without democracy 
and Nationalism the Slovenes could not exist. 
England victorious will have the duty of cham- 
pioning national eugenics, i.e. of favouring those 
nations whose past history has endowed them with 
a capacity for furthering the great ideas of 
Democracy and a non -imperialistic liberal Nation- 
alism. Few nations have been schooled for this 
work by so hard a fate as the Slovenes. By grant- 
ing them the possibility of political freedom the 
Powers will ensure that the blood of the Allied 
armies has not been spilt in vain, and that true 
democracy and the happiness of the small National 
units will spring from the blood -soaked soil. 

But the Slovene Question 'must definitely assume 
the aspect of a European Question when we con- 
template it in conjunction vvdth the Jugoslav idea. 



256 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Cut off from the rest of the Jugoslavs_, the Slovenes 
are without significance ; united with them, they 
are one of the 'most important elements in a Jugio- 
slav State. It was sound' political insight that 
prompted the Serbians to proclaim the inevitable - 
ness of Slovene-Serbio-Croat unity. They knowi that 
the Slovenes will bring an element into the State 
which will make for political consolidation on a 
sound basis. It might even be said that it would 
be a misfortune for the young State if the Slovenes 
were to be excluded from it. 

The Slovenes, like the Serbs, are without social 
traditions, without the terrible ballast of class pre- 
judice and social distinctions. The national hfe 
of both springs from the peasant class, and is per- 
meated by the wholesome breath of the soil. But 
if the social foundations are almost the same in 
both cases, in other respects there are great dif- 
ferences. We have just said that the Slovenes 
and Serbs are without traditions. But during the 
long period of national dependence, during which 
they were debarred from creating anything' they 
might call their own, they were exposed to foreign 
political and social influences. The Serbs lan- 
guished under the shameful yoke of Turkish mis- 
management, and the Slovenes under a foreign 
rule which, in a spirit of patriarchal Absolutism, 
strove to denationalize them, not so much by force 
as by far more insidious means. The effect of 
Turkish brutality upon the Serbs was to rouse their 



CIREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 257 

indomitable love of liberty to the highiest pitch. 
The Slovenes v\^ere in a different case. Beside the 
State, which was governed according to Hispano- 
Habsburg maxims, the Church was equally, deter- 
mined in its endeavours to stifle all sense for free- 
dom among the Slovenes. It is due to these two 
factors that the Slovenes entered the constitutional 
era without a sturdy sense for civic liberty. But 
luckily this misfortune was bound up with a great 
advantage. 

Through living in constant mutual relations with 
the great cultured nations of the West, not only the 
Germans and the Italians, the Slovenes became a 
Western people. They were educated in discipline 
and order. Whatever faults may be laid to the 
charge of Austrian bureaucracy it cannot be denied 
that its administration, however hidebound and 
pedantic, was nevertheless responsible for a con- 
siderable measure of political iorder. The Slovenes 
have lived for eight centuries under Austrian rule, 
and it is not altogether surprising that a love of 
order and purposeful work should be no less 
developed among the Slovenes than among other 
inhabitants of the Austrian Croiwn lands. A hap- 
pily blended temperament united to the influences 
of centuries of regular administration has endowed 
the Slovenes with every aptitude for proving them- 
selves a well -organized, disciplined, and at the 
same time an attractive and versatile people. The 
.Slovenes would contribute much that is valuable 

17 



258 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

to the future Jugoslav community. They would 
represent the sound element of labour, orgianiza- 
tion, and economic occupation. 

Not unless the new Jugoslav State is permitted 
to include the Slovenes will it be able to enter 
completely into the world of Western culture and 
gradually to discard the last remnants of Oriental 
manner: and Byzantine traditions. A State whose 
frontier will pass over the Triglav and, we hope, 
iwest of Trieste, is situated fully within the circle 
of Western culture. 

A rigidly centralistic regime would evoke a 
never-ending series of misunderstandings, the 
revival of half -forgotten prejudices. A nation 
which has always existed under nmny different 
Governments, and has been exposed to the most 
divergent religious, social, and intellectual influ- 
ences, can only hope for untrammelled develop- 
ment if it does not attempft in its Constitution to 
deny the divergences incurred by the past. And 
this will be all the mor& easily accomplished as 
national union will with' a mighty impetus draw 
the individuals together and spur them' on to 
fruitful, united enterprise. 

The Slovene mentality, like the Serbian, pos-* 
sesses the qualities peculiar to; a nation without 
tradition, and only just about to form its society, 
the unexhausted strength^, the primitive instinct, 
the aversion to the stilted differentiations accepted 
by the older nations. They are opposed to all 



GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 259 

that is formal and ceremonial, and incidentally to 
social artificiality and insincerity. It cannot be 
denied that there is something uncouth^ sometimes 
even rude and immature, in types like these. The 
temperament is not yet fully controlled by social 
tact, that irreplaceable something which is only 
acquired in the course of generations. But all 
these deficiencies are balanced by an admirable 
adaptability which is peculiar to all the Jugoslavs. 

But are the Slovenes,' the sons of a young, 
scarce -arisen nation, truly so different from their 
neighbours, the sons of (nations boasting an ancient 
culture? A comparison affords absolute proof of 
educational experiment. A Slovene advocate,, 
scholar, or engineer vi^hose parents were peasants 
differs in no way from a German or an Italian 
with a classical education. Although sprung^ from 
the working classes, a Slovene easily, learns to 
move in society, provided he is afforded an oppor-- 
tunity of doingl so, and he will take a greater 
interest in intellectual miatters than his German 
or Italian social equal. 

As a miatter of fact, a love of intellectual life 
is far more innate in the Jugoslav people than in 
the German or Italian masses. Modern culture 
is democratic, and her doors are open to all with- 
out class distinction. This fact tends to depreciate 
the cultural traditions of those older nations whose 
culture was a prerogative of the upper classes and 
anchored in the domain of ideals of the past. 



260 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

instead of beingi rooted in the virgin soil of the 
democratic ideals of to-day. 

The cultural traditions of the great, older 
nations of Europe are becoming the common 
heritage of an international democracy. The truly 
national literatures of the present age are those 
which have sprung from modern life and are 
rooted in modern thought and modern sentiment. 
But even the young, traditionless nations, whom 
modern Democracy has raised upon the shield, are 
capable of developing a literature and civilization 
of this type consonant with the needs of their age 
and the present day. Our age knows of no mono- 
poly of culture as is fabled by the Italians when 
they wax eloquent over a culture of two thousand 
years. It is strange how very little the nations 
without traditions really need yield the pride of 
place to the older ones whenever they are given a 
chance of free development. Perhaps they lack the 
hyper -refinement of decadent sentiment, the pun- 
gent charm of satiety, but, on the other hand, these 
are only to be found in the wealthiest social strata 
of an historical nation and not in the democratic 
masses. It is the inevitable fate of the culture of 
the present day to becorne a culture of the masses. 
The nations without traditions are spurred on by 
a boundless craving for education ; in feverish 
haste they are endeavouring to obtain what 
criminal fate has withheld from them so long. 

There are two possible paths open to those 



GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 261 

Powers who desire to give more justice, greater 
peace, and prosperity to the nations of Europ»e r 
either to create patchwork, to let the Slovenes 
perish by inches by handing them over once more 
to a Germanizing, Absolutist system of govern- 
ment, thereby infusing new vitality into German 
Imperialism ; or to complete the task by enabling 
the Slovenes to achieve free, xmtrammelled 
political development in commimity with the rest 
of their Jugoslav brothers. 

No one nation, with the exception of the Czechs, 
has battled so desperately and tenaciously for its 
life with Germanism as the Slovenes. In truculent 
determination, a people of a milUon and a half 
faced the huge Colossus, who, in order to clear 
his own path to the southern sea, and filled with 
the purblind, infatuated arrogance of reactionary 
Junkerdom, sought to make an end of a young 
and democratic nation aspiring to legitimate 
development. It would be a ghastly irony of fate 
if, at the very moment of the great decision, it 
were to be sacrificed by the very Powers to whom 
it has pointed the way by its own struggle, a 
nation which has suffered in its own body all the 
insane cruelties of a clique of degenerate wor- 
shippers of force, and has resisted them to the 
utmost of its feeble strength, but with steadfast 
purpose. It would mean that in an age when the 
privileges of the im democratic master -nations are 
doomed the Slovenes would be redelivered to 



262 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

their old masters as guerdon for having' afforded 
in their own existence and pohtical history the 
most impassioned protest against the domination 
of the master -nations. Such a proceeding could 
not be counted an act of wisdom. 

Perhaps no generation has ever awaited any- 
thing with so much anxiety, and yet also with such 
a world-wide optimism, as that with which the 
present generation is awaiting the great change 
which will be the consequence of the war. Before 
our vision arises the new land of a new and better 
Europe, a democratic federation of States, of a 
life embodying greater social service. Should a 
young nation whose whole soul and being is a 
living protest against Germanism be excluded 
from this happier, new-born Europe of the 
future ? 

The Europe of to-morrow owes it to itself to 
give a free path and free developmriient to a nation 
which has honestly earned the right of self- 
government by its sturdy defence against Ger- 
manism, in poverty, humiliation, and the constant 
struggle against the civic slavery imposed upon it 
by its mighty antagonists. 

In an hour of great moment, such an hour as 
comes but once in the lifetime of a nation, a 
small nation is looking with full confidence to 
the great teacher and representative of political 
liberty and economic resource, to the sea -girdled 
realm of England, and it would fain ask : Will 



OREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 263 

this great and mighty people help us to that which 
is the starting' -point and pre-condition of all intel- 
lectual and material prosperity, to political free- 
dom and the free union with the Jugoslav nation 
of which we are part ? 



INDEX 



Abbazia, see Opatija 

Adriatic, see Italy 

Agneletto, Josip, 196 

Agram, see Zagreb 

Alberti, Mario, 194 

All-Slovene gathering, the, 247 

Alps, value of Slovene, 208 

Alsace-Lorraine, 15, 195 

Andrassy, Julius, no 

Aristocracy, 38 

Austria, and the Slovenes, 12, 108 ; 
Germans in, 15 ; intolerance of, 
16 ; German influence in, 17 ; 
and Slovene territory, 23 ; 
attempts to subordinate Slavs, 
31 ; Kingdom of Illyria, 67 ; 
Slav Union in, 76 ; breaking 
up of, 94 ; administrates Slo- 
vene lands, 98 ; as a menace 
to peace, no ; foreign policy 
of, 113 ; and world war, 120 ; 
Joseph II and, 126 ; educa- 
tion in, 149 ; and the Littoral, 
163 ; Nationalist struggles of, 
196, 233 ; mobilization of (1914), 
228 ; and menace of Dual Mon- 
archy, 253 ; bureaucracy of, 257 

Austrian State, Idea of the, 76 

Austro - Hungarian Compromise, 
102 

Austro-Prussian Wars, 89 

Autriche et la Hongrie demain, 
L\ 188 



Avars, the, 43, 46 

Babenberg, House of, 49 

Badeni, 99 

Balkans, the, 37, 96, loi, 121, 174,. 

221, 226 
Balkans and the Adriatic, The.. 

185 

Banks, growth of Slav, 161, 206 

Beljak, 57 

Bible, translation of the, 230 

Bismarck, Prince, 27, 102, 163 

Blatnigrad, 44 

Bleiweis, 71, 80, 231 

Blockade of Illyria, 63 

Bohemia, 21 ; language regula- 
tions in, 99 

Bohoric, Adam, 231 

Books, printing of, 230 

Borghese, 233 

Bosnia, 97, 265 

Boundaries of Italy, 179, 181 

" Branibor " Union, 132 

Budapest, 214 

Bulgaria, 219 

Carantania, 48, 52 
Carantanian Marches, 48 
Carinthia, 20, 23, 33, 44, 49, 51, 56,. 

57, 157, 197 
Carniola, 20, 25, 33, 48, 49, 31, 5^, 
57, 74, 80, 86, 139, 157, 238, 249. 



266 



INDEX 



Carniolian Industrial Company, 

199 
" Catholic Day," 247 
Cavour, Count, 174 
Celge, 36 

Celje, Counts ©£,-49 
Celovec, 36I 
Census, 32 
Centralization, 85 
Chervin, Arthur, 188 
-Church, the, 41 ; and politics, 

245 
Colonization, 17, 163 
Commercial Rise of Trieste, 202 
Convention, the, 194 
Co-operative Societies, 206 
Crispi, Francesco, 159, 162 
Croats, 30, 53, 57, 62, 69, 83, 96, 

196, 213, 214 
Croatian School Union, 150 
•Czechs, the, 21, 39, 73, 89, 92, 114, 

196, 261 

Dalmatia, 56, 57, 145, 157, 182, 

183, 187 
December Constitution, 113 
Democracy, 38, 45, 114, 254 
Denis, Ernest, 21, 186 
Domoljubf 232 
Druzba, see Society of SS. Cyril 

and Method 
Dubrovnik, 57 
Duties of Man, 181 

Ebengreuth, Arnold Luschien von, 
52 

'" Edinost " society, 145 

Education, see Schools 

Elizabeth, Empress, 163 

Emigration, 35 

England, comparison of educa- 
tion in, 236 



Evans, Sir Arthur, 184 

Fayle, 186 

February Patent, 85, 88 

Federation, 85 

Feudalism abolished, 63 

Fiume, 183, 203 

Francis Joseph University, 240 

Frankfort Manifesto, 75, 102 

French, influence, 55, 118, 239 ; 

constitution of Illyria, 55, 151, 

231 
French Revolution, 54, 125 
Friedjung Case, 213 
Furlana, eastern, 20 

Gaj, Ljudevit, 68 

Gayda, 161 

German- Austrian Alliance, 129 

German School Union, 129 

Germans, attitude towards 
Slovenes, 12 ; government by, 
H ; aggression of, 22, 23, 27, 
30, 47, loi, 104, 132, 261 ; in- 
fluence upon Slavs, 35, 39 ; ag- 
gression of in comparison with 
France, 58; and modernism, loi ; 
development of, 102 ; a united, 
106, 221 ; foundation of Empire 
of, 125 ; trade capital of, 200 ; 
bulwark against, 209 ; Magyar 
alliance with, 214 ; and educa- 
tion, 237 

Gorica, 26, 49, 51, 56, 143, 166, 
177, 232 

Gorica-Gradiska, 20, 138, 158, 
181, 183, 198, 237 

Gosposvetsko polje, ceremony at, 

44 
Gradiska, 56, 198 
Grande-Serbte^ La, 186 
Graz, Corps, the, 39 



INDEX 



267 



■Graz-Koflacher district, 35 
Graz, Slovenija of, 74 
Graz University, 239 
Great Settlement, The, 186 
Grun, Anastasius. 78 
Grundriss der Osterrcichischen 
Reichsgeschichte, 52 

Habsburgs, the, 49, 50, 51, 96, 103, 

no, 127, 157, 213, 231 
Hercegovina, 97 
Hermann of Celje, Count, 50 
Hohenlohe, Prince, 160, 162 
Hohenwart-Schaffle Government, 

92, 221 
Holy Empire, 151 
Hungary, 20, 90, no, 126, 220 

Ideedes O ester reichischen Staatcs, 
90 

Idrija mercury mine, 200 

Illyria, 33, 42, 57, 67, 80, 83 

Illyria Resurrected, 231 

Illyriens, pays, 56, 67 

Illyrius, Flaccius, 230 

Imprisonment of Slovenes, in 

Independence, struggle for, 48 

India, English in, 16 

Inner Austria, 43 

Irredentism, no, 111, 227 

Irredentistno Adriatico, 156 

Jsonzo, 181 

Istria, 22, 49, 51, 56, 57, 157, 166, 
183, 197, 235 

Italian Banca Commerciale Tries- 
tina, 207 

Italie moderne, L\ 233 

Italians and the Slovenes, 22 ; 
comparisons with, 30 ; national- 
ism, 106,221 ; and the Slovenes, 
138 ; officialdom of, 146 ; con- 
flict with, 169 ; and a Balkan 



alliance, 174 ; and Imperialism, 
179 ; her demands from Austria, 
181 ; and the Adriatic, 190 
Ivan of Vetrinje, Abbot, 50 

Jadranska Banka, 206 

Jelacic, 96 

Joachim, Archduke, 80 

Joseph II, 54, 125 

Jugoslavs, 5, 40, 43, 50, 51, 52, 55, 
56, 114, 140, 154, 161, 171, 211, 
213, 258 ; see also Slovenes 

Jugoslav West, State, 64 

Jugoslav Social Democracy, 250 

Jurij Brankovic, King, 50 

Kajkavscina, 69 
Karadjic, Vuk, 217 
Karaggeorgjevici, 215 
Karlovac, 57 
Kmetiske novice, 231 
Kollar, 68 

Koniggratz, defeat of, 90, 120 
Kopitar, 232 
Kotor, 58 
Kovcedjic, the, 217 
Kranjec, Joseph, 74, 239 
Kras, 26, 139 

Laibach, see Ljubljana 

Land taxation, 72 

Language question, 14, 31, 50, 64, 

69,81,91,93,98, n5, 126, 147, 

168, 238 
Lassalle, Ferdinand, 128 
Lega Nazionale, 151 
Legal terminology established, 97 
Levstik, Franz, 70 
Leykam-Josephsthal Joint Stock 

Company, 199 
Lichtenstein, Ulric von, 50 
Literature of the Slovenes, 230 



268 



INDEX 



Littoral, the Ulyrian, 138, 151, 

153, 155, 163, 236, 238 
Literary awakening, 72 
Ljubljana, 33, 56, 57, 74, 233, 238, 

239 
Ljubljana, Congress of, 95 
Ljubljana, Kreditna Banka, 200 
Ljubljana, printing office in, 236 
Ljuhljanske N ovine, 231 
Ljudevit, Prince, 47 
Ljutomer, 90 
Lohner, Dr. von, 8l 
Lueger, Dr., 214 
Lungau, 20 

Machiavelli, Niccolo, 109, 191 
Magenta, battle of, 81, 84 
Magyars, the, 22, 46, 103, 124, 

214 
Mahnic, 245 

Manchester Guardian, 184 
March Constitution, 82, 83 
Marmont, 57, 62 
Marriott, 189 
Marx, Karl, 128 
Mathias, King, 50 
Matija Gubec, King, 53 
Mazzini, Giuseppe, 181 
Metternich, 94, 113 
Miklosic, 74, 232 
Municipalities, 134 
Mursec, 74 

Naples, 145 
Napoleon I, 55, 165 
Nase Doha, 223 
National Autonomy, 87 
National Defence Society, 171 
National Protective Unions, the, 

129 
Nationalism, growing, 82, 84, 90, 

98, 108, 113, 114, 226, 255 ; argu- 



ments on, 152 ; to-day, 178 ; of 

Italy, 191 ; in Austria, 196 ; 

need of a strong, 224 ; and 

party, 245 
Nationality and the War, 185 
Niederle, 30, 188 
Neue Freie Presse, 144, 145 
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 105 
Novice, 71 

Obrenovic, House of, 215 

October Diploma, 85, 88 

Official Gazette of the Austro- 

Illyrian Coasfland, 83 
Opatija, 235, 250 
Ostmark, 49 
Otto I, 48 



Palacky, Frantisek, 75, 82, 90 

Pan-Germanism, in Austria, 99^ 
100, 119 ; origin of, 124, 128 ; 
dangers of, for Italy, 172 ; 
Austrian furtherance of, 179, 
224, 249 

Pannonia, 20, 21 

Party Politics, 244 

Pliberk Mining Company, 200 

Pola, 143, 177, 235 

Poland, no, 222, 232 

Political awakening, 66 

Population, statistics of, 32, 64, 
233 ; of the Littoral, 140, 175 ;: 
and Universities, 239 

Posen, 15 

Postojna, 139 

Prague and the Jugoslavs, 224 

Premysl Ottokar, King, 49 

Presern, 70, 71, 232 

Press, freedom of the, 74 ; foun- 
dation of first important daily, 
91 ; development of the, 232 



INDEX 



269 



Products, 197 
Progressive Party, 246 

Question de VAdriatique, La, 182, 
189 

Ragusa, 56, 58, 193 
Reichsrat, enlarged, 88 
Rimski, Katolik, 246 
Risorgimento, 107 
Rohodelske novice, 231 
Roman Catholic Party, 245 
Roman Church, 107 
Rome, influence of, 41, 47, 51 
Russia, 117, 182, 222 

Salonika, 121 

Samo, Emperor, 46, 49 

Schaffle, 92, 221 

Schleswig, 15 

Schonbrunn, Peace of, 56, 57 

Schools, 72, 130, 149, 234 

Self-government, value of, 16 

Serbia, 96, 144, 179, 187, 215, 
256 

Serbo-Croat coalition, 223 

Serbs all and everywhere, 217 

Seton-Watson, Dr., 184 

Sevigne, Mme de, in 

Shipping statistics of Trieste, 204 

Slav Congress, All-, 222 

Slav, Southern, see Slovene 

Slomsek, Archbishop, 72 

Slovan, 246 

Slovenija, founding of the, 74 

Slovenska Matica, 223, 241 

Slovenskt Dom, 232 

Slovenski Narod, 245 

Slovenes, the, 5 ; country and 
people, 12 ; perpetual warfare 
of, 15 ; hopes of, 14 ; in Austria. 



15 ; migration of, 19 ; territory 
of, 20 ; race, 29 ; population, 
32 ; family life of, 34, 39 ; Ger- 
manization of, 35, 39, 47, 118, 
124, 130 ; party feeling amongst, 
37 ; invasion of territory, 42 ; 
independent State system, 44 ; 
struggle for independence, 48 
50 ; and for emancipation, 53 ; 
French influence on, 54 ; ad- 
ministration by French, 58 ; 
reaction, 66 ; peasant state, 72 ; 
want of leadership, 73 ; unions, 
74 ; struggle for liberty, 78 ; 
deputies to Austrian Parliament, 
80 ; re-awakening, 85 ; Parlia- 
mentary troubles, 89 ; Austria 
and the, 95, 97, 115 ; and means 
to peace, no ; feelings towards 
Russia, 117 ; and World War, 
119 ; possible effect on, 122 ; fight 
against Pan-Germanism, 132 ; 
development of, 161 ; writers 
on the, 184 ; peasantry to-day, 
197 ; industries, 201 ; and the 
Serbo-Croats, 222 ; younger 
generation of, 223, 225 ; future 
of the, 229 ; literature of the, 
230 ; demand for Home Rule, 
241 ; party organization, 244 ; 
problem of existence, 252 ; im- 
portance of the nation and its 
future, 256 

Smolka, no 

Soca, see Isonzo 

Social Democratic Party, 247 

Society of SS. Cyril and Method, 

131, 150 
Solferino, battle of, 87 
Sonnino, Baron, 181, 188 
Southern March, the, 129, 132 
Spine, 168 



270 



INDEX 



Spomini, 84 

Srbt svi i svuda, 217 

Starcevic, Ante, 217 

Stjepan Tvrdko II, King, 50 

Stokavscina, 69 

Strossmajxr, Bishop Juraj, 88, 

241 
Styria, 20, 23, 24, 32, 49, 51, 87, 91, 

127, 138, 157, 238 
Sunek, Castle of, 49 
Switzerland, 27, 227 
Szala, 21 
Szopron, 21 



Taaffe, 98, 99 

Tabori, the first, 20 

Territory of the Slovenes, 20-28 

Tisza, Kalman, 120 

Toynbee, Arnold J., 185 

Trbovlje coal mines, 200 

Trentino, the, 180 

Tribuna, 144 

Trieste, 27, 49, 5^, 57, 136, 138, 141, 

146, 149, 154, 156, 158, 161, 164, 

176, 183, 184, 202, 204, 211, 235, 

249 
Triple Alliance, 103, 115, 117, 159, 

160, 162, 174 
Triple Entente, 182 
Trubar, 230 
Turkish wars, 51, 52 



Tyrol, 20, 56 

Tyrol, Count of the, 180 

Ulric of Celje, Count, 50 

Universities, 239 

" Utraquistic " schools, 234 

Vaclavske lazni, meeting at, 73: 

Varazdin, 69 

Vas, 21 

Veda, 196, 223, 224, 233 

Vega, 232 

Vellay, Charles, 182, 189 

Venice, 57, 156 

Vergerius, 230 

Viennese bureaucracy, 109, 116' 

Vipava valley, 26, 139 

Vivante, Angelo, 156 

Vodnik, 67, 231 

Voting statistics, 141 

Vosnjak, Joseph, 84, 91, 97 

Vosnjak, Michael, 205 

Vraz, 68 

War and Democracy, 184 
Water power, 201 

Zadar, 57 
Zagreb, 69, 224 
Zagreb Trial, 213 
Zagreb, University of, 240- 
Zois, 231 



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Poland's Case for Independence 

Demy ^-jo. js. 6d. net. Postage 6d, 

"A book . . . rich in instruction and in interest for all classes of 
readers." — Scotsman. " An admirable summary of the country's 

distinguished and turbulent past." — Pall Mall Gazette. 



Poland Past and Present 

Crown Svo. By J. H. HARLEY ^s. 6d.net. Postage ^d. 

Some new and vital details of the recent history of this unfortunate 
country are conveyed to British readers in Mr. J. H. Harley's vividly 
interesting volume. It is preceded by a preface from the pen of 
Mr. Ladislas Mickiewicz — the son of the great Polish poet — which states 
the attitude of the Polish people to Germ.any, and reveals how deeply 
their sympathies are enlisted in the cause of the Allies. A notable feature 
of the book is a record of the attempts made by the Germans in. 
Poland during the last few months to seduce Poland from her confidence, 
in the justice of the Western Powers. 



A Dying Empire 

By BOGUMIL VOSNJAK 
With a Preface by T. P. O'CONNOR, M.P. 

Crown Sz'o. 4/. 6d. net. Postage ^d. 

In this account of the Dying Empire of Austria the author has tried 
to describe the sociological factors in the breakdown of the Hapsburg 
Empire, and to show that in the fabric of a " Central Europe " is closely 
woven the idea of a predominating Pan-Germanism. Either Germany 
must stretch from Hamburg to Trieste and Salonika, or Austria-Hungary 
must be dismembered. There is no alternative. 

LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN AND UNWIN LIMITED 



Towards a Lasting Settlement 

By G. LOWES DICKINSON, H. N. BRAILSFORD, L A. HOB- 
SON, VERNON LEE, PHILIP SNOWDEX, M.P., A. MAUD 
KOYDEN, H. SIDEBOTHAM, and others. Edited by CHARLES 
ROD EN BUXTON. 
Second Impression. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 2s. 6d. net. Postage 5^. 

" The essays are contributions of real help towards the solution of great 
and inevitable problems."— Prof. Gilbert Murray in The Nation. 

Towards International Government Byj.A.HOBsoN. 

Third Impression. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 2s. 6d. net. Postage ^, 

"Always lucid, cogent, and unflinching in his argument, and . . . 
leads us step by step towards the conclusion that ... the boldest 
solution is safest and simplest." — Manchester Guardian. 

The Future of Democracy By h. m. hyndman. 

Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. net. Postage Sd. 
" Well worth reading." — Manchester Courier. 
"Written with all his old force and lucidity." — Yorkshire Post. 

The Healing of Nations By edward carpenter. 

4TH Edition. Cr. 8vo, Cloth, 2s. 6d. net. Paper, 2s. net. Postage ^d. 
" Profoundly interesting. Well worth most careful attention." — Observer. 
"A wise and understanding book." — T. P.'s Weekly. 

Above the Battle 

By ROMAIN ROLLAND. Translated by C. K. OGDEN, M.A. 
Third Impression. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 2s. 6d. net. Postage ^d. 

" We must leave unnoticed many fine and penetrating thoughts and 
many stirring passages in these golden pages. In them, let us say, once 
for all, speaks the finest spirit of modern France." — The Times Literary 

Supplement. 

The War and the Balkans 

By NOEL BUXTON, M.P., and CHARLES RODEN BUXTON. 
3RD Edition. Cr. 8vo, Cloth, 2s. 6d. net. Paper i.y. net. Postage, ^d. 

" Far and away the best statement that has yet appeared of the attitude 
of the Balkan States." — Sir Edwin Pears in the Daily Chronicle. 

LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LIMITED 














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